FOLLOWING 
THE SUNRISE 



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HaENBARRETTMONTGOMERY 




Book J^l 

Copyright N° 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 




BURMA S PROPHECY 
TREE GROWING OVER IMAGE OF BUDDHA 



Following the Sunrise 



A Century of Baptist Missions, 1813-1913 



By 
HELEN BARRETT MONTGOMERY 

|j 

Author of 
' ' Christus Redemptor ' ' and * ' Western Women in Eastern Lands ' ' 



' I am the Light of the World. He that followeth me shall not 

walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life." 
1 The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light." 



Published in Connection with the Centennial of the 

AMERICAN BAPTIST FOREIGN MISSION SOCIETY 

by the 

AMERICAN BAPTIST PUBLICATION SOCIETY 

PHILADELPHIA 
BOSTON CHICAGO ST. LOUIS 






Copyright 1913 by 
A. J. ROWLAND, Secretary 

Published December, 1913 



©CI.A357969 



TO 

THE GOODLY FELLOWSHIP OF 

BAPTIST MISSIONARIES 

IN EVERY LAND 

who through faith subdued kingdoms, 
wrought righteousness, obtained prom- 
ises, stopped the mouths of lions, out 
of weakness were made strong, waxed 
valiant in fight, turned to flight the 
armies of the aliens; who had trial of 
cruel mockings, yea, moreover, of bonds 
and imprisonment, of whom the world 
was not worthy; to them, both the liv- 
ing and the dead, that great cloud of 
witnesses who summon all disciples to 
look to Jesus and to run valiantly the 
race set before them in full assurance 
that their labor is not in vain in the Lord, 

THIS IMPERFECT STUDY 

IS 

REVERENTLY AND LOVINGLY DEDICATED 



TABLE OF CONTENTS 

Chapter Page 

I. Back of the Beginnings i 

II. Beginnings in Burma 21 

III. Among Animists in Assam 65 

IV. India, the Rudder of Asia 95 

V. The Chance in China 139 

VI. In the Island Empire 175 

VII. Pioneering on the Congo 215 

VIII. Buttressing Democracy in the Philip- 
pines 245 

Limitations of Present Study 281 

Supplementary References 284 

Index 287 



ILLUSTRATIONS 

Page 

Tree growing over image of Buddha. . . .Frontispiece / 

Early Baptist leaders 26 

Adoniram Judson 32. 

Ann Hasseltine Judson 32 

A Karen Association meeting 38 

Getting an audience in Burma 38 

disking Memorial Buildings, Rangoon Baptist Col- 
lege 50^ 

The Vinton Memorial at Rangoon 50 

Burmese Christian women 56 

Christian Tangkhul Nagas at Ukhrul. 70 

In the Industrial School at Jorhat 70 

A heathen Garo 86 

An educated Christian Garo 86 

Ongole High School for Boys 112 

Ramapatnam Theological Seminary 112 

Indian Christian converts from three castes 124 

Preaching to a village audience in South India 124 

Church and congregation at Bhimpore 132 



ILLUSTRATIONS 

Page 

Sinclair Orphanage at Balasore 132 I 

On the Mission Compound at Swatow 15a 

Chinese Bible-women and missionary 150^ 

Missionaries traveling in West China 156 • 

A morning congregation at Hanyang 156 < 

Yates Hall, Shanghai Baptist College 164 — 

Chinese medical students at Nanking 164 

Mary L. Colby School at Kanagawa 186 

Kindergarten at Morioka 186 

The new gospel ship in Japan 196 

Waseda dormitory students at Tokyo 196 

A meeting for the zvomen , 230 

Orphanage girls at Sona Bata learning to sew 230 L 

Starting for a tour on a monocycle 240 

An operation under difficulties 240 

Boys of Jaro Industrial School at work 262 ^ 

A village congregation in the Philippines 262 , 

On the veranda of the Union Hospital at Iloilo 2J2 

A girls' Bible class in the Philippines 272 - 



BACK OF THE BEGINNINGS 



CHAPTER I 
BACK OF THE BEGINNINGS 

Preparation for Missionary Century. Behind the 
beginnings of the century of Baptist missionary his- 
tory now closing, lay a great preparation of the Eng- 
lish-speaking Protestant church, of which the Baptists 
were so unregarded and insignificant a portion. 
Through the English Revolution of 1688, the Ameri- 
can Revolution, and the French Revolution, the bases 
of democracy had been so established that a new sense 
of the worth of the individual had been developed, a 
new freedom won, and a new sense of personal respon- 
sibility had been created, without which no foreign 
missionary movement was possible. 

Discovery and exploration had begun to batter 
down the thick barriers which divided nations and 
races. The control of the seas and the leadership in 
colonization were passing from the Spanish and 
Portuguese to the English and Dutch. The great 
spiritual revival of Methodism had permeated and 
transformed the religious life of England and America. 
A new spirit of prayer had led to a movement in 
England in 1774 to undertake a concert of prayer of 
two years " that God's kingdom may come " ; and 
America, under the apostolic call to prayer of Jona- 

3 



4 FOLLOWING THE SUNRISE 

than Edwards, had entered upon a seven-years period 
of intercession " for the spread of the gospel in the 
most distant parts of the habitable globe/' 

Two Providential Preparations. Of these wider 
providential preparations for the new era of missions 
it would be impossible to speak at length in the limits 
of the present text-book. It is necessary, however, in 
order to get proper background, to mention more 
fully two preparatory movements — the missionary or- 
ganization of English Baptists, and the historical prepa- 
ration of the American Baptists, which antedated the 
beginning of the missionary movement in the nineteenth 
century. 

Carey, "A Consecrated Cobbler." On October 5, 
1783, in Northampton, England, a little group of Bap- 
tists gathered on the banks of the river Nen to witness 
the baptism of a young man. The minister, Doctor 
Ryland, who made entry in his journal, "This day 
baptized a poor young shoemaker," little dreamed that 
William Carey would become within nine years of 
that day one of the great missionary leaders of the 
age. He was no ordinary young apprentice, even 
then. While he learned his trade at the bench he 
studied unremittingly. At the age of twenty he mar- 
ried and set up a little stall for himself. With a book 
by his side as he wrought, he became as expert in 
handling books as in repairing shoes. In seven years 
he became familiar enough with Latin, Greek, He- 
brew, French, and Dutch to read and enjoy books 
written in these languages. He had time besides to 
read the just-published " Voyages of Captain Cook/' 



BACK OF THE BEGINNINGS 5 

that was the talk of the day. As he read this stirring 
story of exploration and discovery he made a rude 
map of the world to hang upon the wall of his little 
room, and on this he followed the adventurous voy- 
ager, and as he read he prayed. The vision of the 
world dawned on him; the great world untouched by 
the message of the gospel. As he read and prayed and 
meditated, a mighty purpose was born within him. 

Called to Preach. A little Baptist church invited 
him to become its pastor. His salary was about sev- 
enty-five dollars a year. By teaching the village 
children and working at his trade, he managed to 
increase this to a total income of one hundred and 
thirty dollars a year. Sometimes he and his wife and 
children went hungry. They could seldom have meat, 
but depended largely on the vegetables he raised in 
his famous garden. At length he was formally or- 
dained as a Baptist minister, and began endeavoring 
to communicate the visions and purposes stirring 
within him to his brethren of the Association. His 
ordination sermon was preached by Andrew Fuller, the 
most eminent Baptist minister of the day. A story 
is told that Doctor Fuller, one day wishing to have a 
shoe-buckle repaired, stepped into Carey's little shop, 
saw on the wall the big, home-made map of the 
heathen world, and there, for the first time, became 
acquainted with the vast dreams stirring in the heart 
of the young apostle. 

A Famous Pamphlet. At that time Mr. Carey was 
writing a pamphlet entitled, u An Enquiry into the 
Obligation of Christians to use Means for the Conver- 



6 FOLLOWING THE SUNRISE 

sion of the Heathens." When he had it written and 
could not pay to print it, one of those obscure saints 
who have done so much in all the ages to further the 
kingdom of Christ cheerfully gave the price to pay 
the printer. To-day a worn copy of that rare little 
pamphlet is worth its weight in gold, but his brother 
ministers did not highly regard it. At a meeting 
where he was propounding the question whether the 
command to disciple all nations laid on the apostles 
was not equally binding on every generation of Chris- 
tians, the chairman shouted out : " You are a mis- 
erable enthusiast to ask such a question. Certainly 
nothing can be done before another Pentecost.'' Doc- 
tor Ryland, the pastor who had baptized him, said 
sternly on another occasion : " Young man, sit down. 
When the Lord gets ready to convert the heathen he 
will do it without your help or mine." 

" Expect and Attempt." But finally his persistence 
did gain a hearing. He was appointed to preach the 
sermon at the annual meeting of the Association, and 
chose for his text Isaiah 54 : 2 and 3. The heads of 
his sermon were two : " Expect great things from 
God; attempt great things for God." While the 
powerful sermon was evidently making a deep im- 
pression, still it was true as of old, " Some believed, 
some doubted." As they left the meeting Mr. Carey 
grasped Andrew Fuller's arm, exclaiming, "And are 
you, after all, again to do nothing?" 

A Momentous Meeting. In response to his appeals 
the Association passed a minute that a plan be pre- 
pared for the next ministers' meeting to form a Bap- 



BACK OF THE BEGINNINGS 7 

tist society for propagating the gospel among heathen 
nations. A little later, October 7, 1792, there met in 
the little parlor of the widow Wallis, in Kettering, 
twelve Baptist ministers, who proceeded to form a 
missionary society. Out of their deep poverty these 
twelve servants of God contributed thirteen pounds, 
two shillings, and sixpence. The richer churches and 
ministers of the denomination stood aloof from the 
movement, and it was the poorer churches, rich in 
faith, because nearer to the deep and simple verities 
of life, who by June, 1793, were able to send out as 
their first missionaries to India William Carey, a min- 
ister, and John Thomas, a surgeon. 

Missions Not Wanted in India. It is not within the 
scope of this book to follow in detail the story of 
these pioneers. The undertaking w r as regarded with 
the utmost scorn by the great majority of educated 
and even religious men in that generation. It had 
to run the gauntlet of opposition of the British East 
India Company, which at that time controlled India 
in the interests of dollar diplomacy. The officers of 
the Company would not permit Carey to live in India, 
unless he took out a license as an indigo planter and 
lived there ostensibly as a trader. Even as a planter 
Carey was so harassed in attempting to do any mis- 
sionary work, that he had to secure in the Dutch settle- 
ment at Serampore the protection which his own flag 
denied him. Here for seven years he continued his work 
of translating and printing the Scriptures. The scholarly 
work of this obscure Baptist missionary is one of the 
miracles of history. 



8 FOLLOWING THE SUNRISE 

Carey as a Translator. Says Professor Henry C. 
Vedder: 

Between 1801 and 1822, thirty-six translations of the 
Scriptures, in whole or in part, were made and edited by 
Carey at Serampore. Of these thirty-six versions, six 
were complete translations of the Bible. Twenty-three 
more were translations of the entire New Testament. 
And to six of these some Old Testament books were 
added later. In four cases the Gospels only were trans- 
lated, in whole or in part. In making every one of these 
versions Carey had some share. Several of them he 
made throughout. In other cases he did only part of 
the w r ork, but revised the whole. In all, he was directly 
concerned in the printing of forty-two distinct transla- 
tions. Four at least of these — the Bengali, Hindu, 
Marathi, and Sanskrit were his exclusive work from title- 
page to colophon. (Slightly condensed.) 

The Serampore Brotherhood. This first mission 
was started with the idea of being pecuniarily inde- 
pendent of the home churches. Doctor Carey, Doctor 
Marshman, and Mr. Ward formed an organization 
known as the Serampore Brotherhood. It was a 
simple and beautiful example of Christian com- 
munism. All their earnings were to be held as a 
sacred trust for the benefit of the mission. Their per- 
sonal expenses were to be made as modest as possible. 
The little community of nine adults and ten children, 
with the native helpers and assistants, lived a life of 
singular beauty and happiness, as it is pictured in 
the remarkable letters of Hannah Marshman. Dur- 
ing a term of years the Brotherhood earned and turned 
in to the support of missionary work a half-million 



BACK OF THE BEGINNINGS 9 

dollars. Of this amount, Carey gave half and Mrs. 
Marshman one hundred thousand dollars. In dividing 
the work, translation fell to Carey, the schools to Marsh- 
man, and the printing-press to Ward. 

Services to Science and Society. Many people have 
an idea that the early missionaries were narrow- 
minded in their vision of the scope of the task by 
them begun, in that they interpreted it as purely a 
service of evangelism. To such, the career of these 
pioneer English Baptists will be a surprise. The serv- 
ices to science and society rendered by the Serampore 
band have been summed up by a recent historian as 
follows : 

The first complete or partial translation of the Bible 
printed in forty languages or dialects of India, China, 
Central Asia, and other neighboring lands at a cost of 
eighty thousand, one hundred and forty-three pounds; 
the first prose work and vernacular newspaper in Ben- 
gali, the language of seventy million human beings ; the 
first printing-press on an organized scale ; the first paper- 
mill and steam-engine seen in India; the first Christian 
primary school in North India; the first efforts to edu- 
cate native girls and women; the first college to train 
native ministers and Christianize native Hindus ; the first 
Hindu Protestant convert; the first medical mission; 
the establishment and maintenance of at least thirty sep- 
arate large mission stations ; the first botanic garden and 
society for the improvement of agriculture and horticul- 
ture in India; the first translation into English of the 
great Sanskrit classics. (Henry C. Vedder.) 

Influence on Other Churches in England. This 
enterprise of the English Baptists, while little appre- 



io FOLLOWING THE SUNRISE 

ciated in many quarters in England, exerted a great 
influence throughout the world. The Church of 
England soon after organized its foreign missionary 
society. The London Missionary Society organized 
by the English Congregationalists, but having from 
the first an undenominational charter, the British and 
Foreign Bible Society, and the Religious Tract Society 
are among the organizations in whose establishment 
one can trace directly the influence of the pioneer 
Baptist society. 

Influence in America. The English Baptists exerted 
a great influence in America also, through their mis- 
sionary enterprise. Auxiliary groups were organized 
in many Baptist churches in the United States in sup- 
port of the Serampore mission. It is pleasing to Amer- 
ican pride to recall the fact that at that time many 
of the English missionaries sailed to their field of 
work in India in American ships, via New York. Doc- 
tor Wayland has said that he remembered as a boy 
listening to English Baptist missionaries who were 
entertained in his father's home in New York City 
while they were waiting for their ship to sail for India. 
It will be recalled that the first woman's missionary 
society in the United States was organized in Boston 
by Miss Mary Webb to help in the support of the 
English Baptist work in India. 

Death of Carey. In the death of William Carey, in 
1834, there passed from earth one of the greatest men 
who have adorned the history of the Christian church. 
In character and ability, in labors and sufferings, he 
was no unworthy successor of the Great Apostle. The 



BACK OF THE BEGINNINGS n 

words which, by his expressed direction, were cut 
upon the simple stone which marks his grave, are 
eloquent of the humility and simplicity of his char- 
acter: 

A wretched, poor, and helpless worm 

On Thy kind arms I fall. 

Nothing could be farther removed from the bustling 
and self-confident discipleship of to-day. Yet per- 
haps, in these words, with their quaint and almost 
forgotten theology, we may find the secret of the 
power which made William Carey different from 
other men. 

Preparation of American Baptists. We have traced 
briefly and imperfectly the beginnings of the modern 
foreign missionary enterprise in England. It remains 
to speak of the further preparation by which the Bap- 
tist churches of America had been fitted to take their 
part in the world-wide enterprise of Christian mis- 
sions. The Baptists had enjoyed the advantages which 
come from thoroughgoing and long-continued perse- 
cution for opinion's sake. Because of their peculiar 
views they had found themselves unwelcome in many 
of the colonies, and in the defense of those views had 
undergone whipping, the loss of property, imprisonment, 
and banishing. 

Some Baptist Principles. The views which made 
them singular at that time are those held now by the 
great majority of Protestant Christians. But in the 
early days of this country they were regarded as 
heretical and dangerous. From the days of Roger 



12 FOLLOWING THE SUNRISE 

Williams the glory of the Baptist denomination has 
been that it was the steadfast defender of absolute 
freedom of conscience and complete separation of 
Church and State. When Roger Williams set up his 
new government in the wilderness of Rhode Island 
it was the first time in history that a civil govern- 
ment had recognized the equality of opinions before 
the law, " leaving," says Bancroft, " heresy unharmed 
by law, and orthodoxy unprotected by the horrors of 
penal statutes/' 

Freedom of Conscience Unpopular. It is difficult 
for us to appreciate how strange these ideas of Bap- 
tist Roger Williams seemed to the men of his own 
times. The best men in those days defended the 
necessity of rooting out wrong opinions in politics 
and religion by fines, imprisonment, banishment, or 
worse. They called toleration a word of infamy, and 
really believed that unless the State tried to make 
men think alike, there could be no settled govern- 
ment. Even Milton's noble essay in favor of tolera- 
tion, called the Areopagiticus, went only so far as to 
plead that " the many be tolerated rather than all be 
compelled." 

Roger Williams' Radical Position. Roger Williams 
went further than this, even to the full length that 
men have come in the three hundred years since he 
lived. " It is the will of God," he said, " that a per- 
mission of the most pagan, Jewish, Turkish, and anti- 
christian consciences be granted to all men in all 
nations and countries." These brave words were in 
a little book which according to the quaint custom of 



BACK OF THE BEGINNINGS 13 

the time had a most thundering and imposing title: 
" The Bloody Tenet of Persecution for Cause of Con- 
science." The book had two editions its first year; 
a great sale for those days. It represented a dialogue 
between two sorrowful angels, Truth and Peace, who, 
after long wanderings over the earth, had met in some 
dusky corner to confer over the hate and passion which 
curse mankind and fill the earth with tumult and misery. 
Controversy with John Cotton. When the little 
book, with the great thought and the long name, 
reached New England it stirred up Rev. John Cotton 
to make a reply. This he did with great earnestness 
arid the conviction that he was demolishing a danger- 
ous heresy. He called his work " The Bloody Tenet 
Washed and Made White in the Blood of the Lamb." 
We must not even peep between its pages to see how 
the good man tried to answer Roger Williams. We 
must remember, however, that he was a good man 
and true, zealous in controverting what he, with nine 
out of ten educated men of his day, regarded as dan- 
gerous heresy. If there was one thing Roger Will- 
iams loved almost as well as succoring some poor 
fugitive, or repairing some injustice, it was a good 
fight. We are not surprised, therefore, to find him 
thundering out a reply to Mr. Cotton. " The Bloody 
Tenet yet more Bloody by Mr. Cotton's Endeavor to 
Wash it White in the Blood of the Lamb," was the 
name he gave his book. They were hard hitters, the 
controversialists of those days. They called each other 
names, hard, mouth-filling names, and indulged in 
all sorts of personal abuse. 



14 FOLLOWING THE SUNRISE 

In his reply to John Cotton, in spite of its contro- 
versial defects, Roger Williams wrote one of the 
noblest defenses of soul-liberty ever written. It ar- 
raigns the bloody doctrine of persecution for 
opinion's sake before the bar of man and the bar of 
God. It sweeps in stormy music through argument, 
persuasion, humor, pathos, sarcasm, tenderness, 
hatred. It finally gathers in a great surge of pas- 
sionate invective to hurl against the tenet he abhors: 
" Yet this is a foul, a black, a bloody tenet ; a tenet 
of high blasphemy against the God of peace, the God 
of order who hath made of one blood all mankind to 
dwell on the face of the earth, a tenet against which 
the blessed souls under the altar cry aloud ; this tenet 
having cut their throats, torn out their hearts, and 
poured forth their blood in all ages as the only heretics 
and blasphemers of the world ; a tenet loathsome and 
ugly, a tenet that kindles the devouring flames of 
combustions and wars in most nations of the world, 
a tenet all besprinkled with the bloody murders, 
stabs, poisonings against many famous kings, princes, 
and states; a tenet that corrupts and spoils the very 
civil honesty and national conscience. No tenet that 
the world doth harbor is so heretical, blasphemous, 
seditious, and dangerous to the corporeal, to the spir- 
itual, to the present, to the eternal good of men as 
the bloody tenet (however washed or whitened) of 
persecution for cause of conscience." 

Triumph of His Ideas. When Roger Williams died, 
an old man, poor in money, but rich in friends, rich 
in faith, rich in noble enthusiasm, the State he had 



BACK OF THE BEGINNINGS 15 

founded was one of the smallest and weakest in a 
young, weak country. It did not seem possible that 
the ideas for which he stood were to influence the 
whole world, and to control one of the greatest nations 
of the earth. Professor Gervinus, in his " Introduc- 
tion to the History of the Nineteenth Century/' sums 
up the matter as follows: 

Roger Williams founded in 1636 a small, new society 
in Rhode Island upon the principles of entire liberty of 
conscience, and the uncontrolled power of the majority 
in secular affairs. The theories of freedom in Church 
and State taught in the schools of philosophy in Europe 
were here brought into practice in the government of a 
small community. It was prophesied that the democratic 
attempt would be of short duration. But these institu- 
tions have not only maintained themselves here, but have 
spread over the whole Union. They have superseded the 
aristocratic commencements of Carolina and New York, 
the high-church party of Virginia, the theocracy of Mas- 
sachusetts. They have given laws to one quarter of 
the globe; and dreaded for their moral influence, they 
stand in the background of every democratic struggle in 
Europe. 

Baptists in Revolutionary Times. Their steadfast 
adherence to these unpopular doctrines had been at 
once the glory and the source of strength to the Bap- 
tist churches of America. They were for the most 
part composed of poor and obscure men. Most of 
the ministers received no salaries, but worked at vari- 
ous trades during the week. At the time of the Revo- 
lution there were not a half-dozen highly educated 
Baptist ministers in the entire country, but the pres- 



i6 FOLLOWING THE SUNRISE 

sure of persecution had welded them into a brother- 
hood, and the progress of liberal ideas was making 
them increasingly strong throughout the country. 
The outbreak of the Revolution found the Baptists 
doubly zealous. They had not only the patriotic stake 
common to all the colonists, but also the disabilities 
and injustices under which they suffered, to impel 
them to throw themselves whole-heartedly into the 
great struggle for human freedom. In fact, the 
majority of the chaplains in the Revolution were Bap- 
tists. With the accomplishment of the Revolution 
the repressive statutes against the Baptists were for 
the most part repealed, although it was not until 1833 
that the last trace of repressive legislation disappeared 
in Massachusetts. 

Baptist Growth. Following the close of the Revo- 
lution there came a considerable expansion in the 
numbers and influence of the Baptists. In 1770 there 
had been but ninety-seven Baptist churches in the 
Colonies, and many of these so small that one pastor 
supplied several. A large number of churches too 
were entirely dependent on the chance services of 
traveling evangelists for the preaching of the gospel. 
In 1792 the membership of all the Baptist churches 
was thirty-five thousand, and in 1800 they numbered 
one hundred thousand. The proportion of Baptists 
was one to two hundred and sixty-nine of the total 
population in 1776, and one to fifty-three of the popu- 
lation in 1800. Their history of persecution and the 
necessity of vigorous upholding of religious convic- 
tion had not been without evil results. The danger 



BACK OF THE BEGINNINGS 17 

of the Baptists at the beginning of the century was 
that a certain hardness and sectarian sufficiency had 
come to characterize them, as they saw the triumph 
of their principles so long opposed. It was just at 
this time that the new vision of the world's need 
summoned them to undertake greater tasks, and led 
them out into a deeper and more vital piety. 

The World of One Hundred Years Ago. The con- 
trast in the numerical status of the Baptists at the 
beginning of the nineteenth century and their posi- 
tion to-day is not more striking than that which 
exists between the world at the opening of the twen- 
tieth century and that of the nineteenth. When Jud- 
son sailed, one hundred years ago, the population of 
the United States all told numbered less than that 
of New York State to-day. The young nation was 
wrestling for its life in the second war with England. 
Except for a fringe of thinly settled States along the 
Atlantic seaboard, the territory of the United States 
was unsettled and for the most part unexplored. 
Roads were few, communication difficult, credit poor, 
money scarce. There were n<p railways, steamboats, 
trolleys, or telegraph and telephone lines. Europe 
was shaken by Napoleonic wars. In place of the 
German nation there was a group of weak and jealous 
States; in place of United Italy a huddle of little 
despotisms harried under the big Austrian despotism 
of the North and the Papal despotism of the South. 
Italy had become " only a geographical expression." 
The Turkish power held southeastern Europe in its 
grasp. India, under the exploitation of the East India 

B 



i8 FOLLOWING THE SUNRISE 

Company, was closed to missions. China, except for 
a few jealously guarded ports, was a forbidden land. 
Japan and Korea were hermetically sealed against 
free intercourse with the rest of the world. Africa 
was a dark land of mystery and cruelty. 

Moral Conditions of a Century Ago. The moral 
condition of the world was almost as depressing as 
the political situation. The great wave of infidelity 
that swept over France, Germany, and England in 
the latter half of the eighteenth century was sharply 
felt in the United States. Not even the mighty im- 
pulse of the Methodist awakening had been sufficient 
to arouse fully the churches of England and America. 
It was in 1802 that the " Morning Herald " of London 
recorded that a butcher at Hereford had sold his wife 
at auction for one pound, four shillings at the last market 
day. Less than seven per cent of the population of the 
United States were church-members at the opening of the 
nineteenth century. In the colleges and among the 
leading men skepticism was both flaunted and fash- 
ionable. The churches were not only weak in num- 
bers, but lax in discipline and discouraged. In the 
beginning of the century there were only three pro- 
fessing Christians among the undergraduates at Yale, 
and in 1813 only one in Princeton College. Drunken- 
ness and gambling were common and unrebuked. 
Liquor flowed freely at every house-raising, even 
when a minister was to be ordained or a church dedi- 
cated. 

The lottery was so respectable that it was not 
frowned upon as a means of supporting enterprises 



BACK OF THE BEGINNINGS 19 

of highest character. And, in fact, it was not at all 
unusual for a church about to build to appeal to the 
legislature for a franchise to run a lottery in order to 
raise the necessary funds. 

The Awakening. It is easy to see by the perspective 
of a century that the beginnings of the missionary 
enterprise, feeble though they were, marked the turn 
of the tide. The foreign mission enterprise was both 
the sign and the stimulus of the new life, acting and 
reacting on the life of the Church. When the philo- 
sophic history of the nineteenth century comes to be 
written there is little doubt but that foreign missions 
will be appraised as one of the profound movements 
of the human spirit breathed upon by the Divine 
Spirit. 

Bibliography 

CulroGs, Carey the Pioneer Missionary. Philadelphia, American 

Baptist Publication Society. 
Marshman, The Serampore Missionaries. New York, Ward, 

1867. 
Williams, Serampore Letters. New York, Putnams, 1892. 
Straus, Roger Williams. 
Tilley, British in India, 1600-1828. Boston, Houghton, Mifflin 

and Company. 
Montgomery, Western Women in Eastern Lands, pp. 11, 12. 

New York, Macmillan Company, 191 1. 



BEGINNINGS IN BURMA 



100° E 




BURMA 

SHOWING 

STATIONS 

OF THE 
AMERICAN BAPTIST 
r- FOREIGN MISSION SOCIETY 
Stations of A.B.F.M.8.: Moulmeln 

SCALE OF MILg'S' 



Longitude 96 East from Q Greenwich 98 



CHAPTER II 
BEGINNINGS IN BURMA 

Beginning of the Moral Awakening. As the 
Reformation of the thirteenth century began with a 
young man, St. Francis of Assisi, and his twelve 
disciples, and the arousing of the Catholic Church in 
the seventeenth century, with Ignatius Loyola and 
his six disciples, so the missionary awakening of the 
Protestant church of America, about a hundred years 
ago, began with a group of five young college stu- 
dents. Their story is the richly illuminated border 
wrought by God's providence to embellish the text 
of the apostle, " The foolishness of God is wiser than 
man ; the weakness of God is stronger than man ; and 
God hath chosen the weak things of the world to 
confound the things that are mighty." 

The Haystack Prayer-Meeting. When in the sum- 
mer of 1806, a thunder-shower drove to the shelter 
of a haystack five students in Williams College, 
nothing was more improbable than that anything they 
could do or say should have echoes heard around the 
world. They had been talking of the spiritual dark- 
ness of so large a portion of the world and had been 
debating the bearing of Christ's last command on 
their own lives. As they waited for the shower to 
end, Samuel J. Mills proposed that they devote them- 

23 



24 FOLLOWING THE SUNRISE 

selves to sending the gospel to the heathen. In 
response to the objections of his comrades that this 
was too great an enterprise for them to undertake, 
he said, in words which will never die, " We can do it 
if we will." Then they knelt down and prayed, and, 
the shower being over, went quietly home. The 
people whom they passed were as unaware that a 
crisis hour in the history of the world had come as 
were those others who thronged the Master on his 
way to Calvary, long ago. 

Obstacles in the Way. Nothing could be more 
quixotic, more impossible to the eye of calculating 
diplomacy than the undertaking to which they had 
devoted themselves. In 1806 not a denomination in 
the United States had a purely foreign missionary 
organization, and the English Baptist Missionary 
Society and the London Missionary Society had been 
organized scarcely more than a decade. The senti- 
ment of the vast majority of Christians was actively 
opposed to such an organization. Money was not 
abundant. There were almost no avenues of pub- 
licity through which to reach the churches, and the 
avenues of approach to the non-Christian world were 
for the most part tightly closed. But God could use 
these men, and he did. 

Recruits at Andover. These five young men, 
Samuel J. Mills, James Richards, Francis L. Robbins, 
Harvey Loomis, and Byram Green, with other stu- 
dents of like mind, formed a brotherhood, which met 
regularly to pray for the salvation of the heathen 
world. Later, when three of these young men entered 



HKG1NNINGS IN BURMA 25 

Andover Theological Seminary, they met: with 
another group of students whom God had led to a 
similar devotion of their lives: Samuel Nott, Samuel 
Newell, and Adoniram Judson. These men joined the 
brotherhood, and all continued to meet and to plan 
ways in which they might realize their common pur- 
pose. Judson became the recognized leader of the 
group. 

Organization of the American Board. Their first 
idea was to write to one of the English missionary 
societies for appointment, but through the good 
advice of Prof. Moses Stuart they were induced to lay 
their hopes before the general association of the Con- 
gregational churches. As a result of their solemn and 
moving appeal, the first denominational society in 
America for the promotion of foreign missions was 
organized September 5, 1810. This was the American 
Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions repre- 
senting a group of Congregational churches. But even 
then the faith of the directors was too weak to undertake 
full financial responsibility for the enterprise; and corre- 
spondence was entered into with the London Missionary 
Society, proposing joint support. This proposition was 
declined, and it was a year before the American Board 
plucked up courage to appoint Adoniram Judson, Samuel 
Newell, Samuel Nott, Gordon Hall, and later, Luther 
Rice, as its first missionaries. During this year missionary 
enthusiasm received a strong impetus from the visit 
of William Johns in the interest of the Serampore 
mission of the English Baptists. His appeals through- 
out New England had no small part in securing the 



26 FOLLOWING THE SUNRISE 

support of the people for the projected mission of 
the American Board. 

The churches responded feebly to appeals for 
money; but after long and careful consideration, the 
Board voted to send the men out in faith that God 
who was so evidently leading the enterprise would 
provide the funds. Within three weeks of this deci- 
sion, six thousand dollars came in from all quarters. 
The announcement of the first large bequest for for- 
eign missions, $30,000 from Mrs. Mary Norris of 
Salem, still further encouraged the little circle of sup- 
porters. Adoniram Judson and Samuel Newell, with 
their wives, sailed from Salem on the nineteenth day 
of February, 1812, and Luther Rice, Gordon Hall, and 
Samuel Nott a little later from Philadelphia. 

Judson and Rice Become Baptists. The events of 
the few months following the sailing of the young 
missionaries and their brides were to demonstrate 
how God was using the consecration of these young 
men, not only to stir the Congregational and Pres- 
byterian churches, but also to bring the Baptists 
within the sweep of world-wide evangelism. On the 
long voyage to India by slow sailing-vessels, both 
Judson and Rice, quite unknown to each other, as 
they sailed in different ships, were led to examine 
anew the Scriptural grounds of their belief on the 
subject of baptism, and both arrived ultimately at 
the same conclusion, namely, that the Baptist posi- 
tion was that justified by the New Testament. Some 
time after reaching Calcutta they were immersed by 
one of the English Baptist missionaries. Later, while 




EARLY BAPTIST LEADERS 

I. RICHARD FURMAN 2. LUCIUS BOLLES 

3. THOMAS BALDWIN 4. FRANCIS WAYLAND 
5. WILLIAM STAUGHTON 



6. DANIEL SHARP 



BEGINNINGS IN BURMA 27 

on the Isle of France, it was decided that Luther 
Rice should at once return to America to lay the mat- 
ter before the Baptists, and to urge upon them the 
adoption of these young missionaries as their own. 
It was the hardest trial in the life of Adoniram Jud- 
son to write the account of his changed views to the 
Board which had sent him out. Yet that which seemed 
such a tragedy to the infant undertaking proved, by God's 
grace, a wonderful stimulus in widening the circle of 
missionary interest and responsibility. 

Luther Rice Returns to America. The young mis- 
sionaries thus cast adrift in a strange land, had good 
hopes of enlisting the Baptists of America to begin 
an enterprise of their own, and Luther Rice proved 
just the man for the task. Word had been at once 
sent to the Rev. Thomas Baldwin, D. D., of Boston, 
and the Rev. Lucius Bolles, of Salem, asking them 
to use their influence to secure the cooperation of 
the Baptists of Massachusetts. These Baptists 
adopted Mr. Judson as their missionary, and ap- 
pointed Mr. Rice to speak in Philadelphia, and then 
to go throughout the churches of the South. Within 
a year he had organized twenty-five auxiliaries. Scant 
justice has been done to the memory of this young 
man, whose self-denying labors in the homeland were 
as necessary a part of the missionary enterprise as 
were those of Judson in Burma. He traveled con- 
stantly from church to church, he gave himself but 
five or six hours daily for sleep, he denied himself all 
but the bare necessities of life, and for twenty years, 
without wife, or child, or home, in constant weariness 



28 FOLLOWING THE SUNRISE 

of journey ings among the churches in city and in country, 
he urged the claims of missions and of ministerial edu- 
cation. 

The Baptists Organize. In Philadelphia, May 18, 
1814, thirty-six delegates from eleven States and the 
District of Columbia met, and on the twenty-first organ- 
ized "The General Missionary Convention of the Baptist 
Denomination in the United States of America for 
Foreign Missions,'' afterward known as the Triennial 
Convention because it met but once in three years. 
For thirty years all foreign missionary work of the 
Baptist denomination in America was done through 
this Convention; but in 1844 the unhappy divisions 
growing out of the anti-slavery agitation led to a 
separation between the Baptists of the North and 
those of the South. The churches South organized 
the following year the Southern Baptist Convention, 
which continues to this day their agent for foreign 
missionary activities. In 1846 the Northern churches 
arranged to carry on their foreign missionary work 
through the American Baptist Missionary Union, 
with headquarters in Boston. After the organization 
of the Northern Baptist Convention, the name of this 
organization was changed in 1910 to "American Bap- 
tist Foreign Mission Society." 

Driven Out of India. The difficulty in securing 
financial support was the least of the troubles of the 
Judsons. The East India Company was implacable 
in its opposition to missions, an opposition strength- 
ened at this moment by the news of the war between 
England and America. Ten days after leaving 



BEGINNINGS IN BURMA 29 

Serampore all the missionaries were peremptorily 
ordered to leave the country and return to America. 
Permission was finally secured to embark in a vessel 
bound for the Isle of France, and the Judsons, who 
had failed to secure a pass, found a sea-captain who 
agreed to take them without a pass. They were over- 
taken when two days down the river by a government 
despatch boat and forced to go ashore. When all 
hopes of escaping deportation to England seemed 
gone, a mysterious letter containing a pass on the very 
ship which they had been compelled to leave was 
handed to Mr. Judson. The source of this kindness 
he never knew. They started with their precious pass 
in the dead of night, rowed hard all night and all day 
over seventy miles of the river, on the desperate 
chance that the vessel might not yet have sailed ; and 
at dawn, exhausted, saw the " Creole " lying at anchor. 
The Judsons and Luther Rice were for some time in 
the Isle of France. The Judsons subsequently went 
to Madras, and were again ordered to be deported. 
After a series of exciting adventures, in order to es- 
cape being sent to England they finally took refuge 
in a ship bound for Burma, at that time an independ- 
ent kingdom under a despotic and semi-civilized gov- 
ernment. To Judson it was the last resort. 

A mission to Rangoon we had been accustomed to 
regard with feelings of horror, but it was now brought 
to a point; we must either venture there or be sent to 
Europe. All other paths were shut up ; and thus situated, 
though dissuaded by all our friends at Madras, we com- 
mitted ourselves to God, and embarked. 



30 FOLLOWING THE SUNRISE 

Beginning Work in Burma. There have been few 
more difficult or more unpromising situations. They 
were alone, unprotected, under a cruel and despotic 
government. Rangoon was at that time a straggling 
fishing-town, pestilential, and unlovely. They did not 
yet know what action the Baptists of America would 
take in regard to their support The audacity of the 
undertaking was staggering. Here this young Ameri- 
can of twenty-five and his bride addressed themselves 
to learn a language of which they had neither gram- 
mar nor printed helps, among a people to whose cus- 
toms and ideas they were utter strangers. Here Mrs. 
Judson brought forth her first baby with no attendant 
save her husband. Here, while toiling terribly to 
learn the language, the Judsons lost no opportunity 
to speak or write to those about them in regard to the 
great purpose for which they had come — the dissem- 
ination of the gospel of Christ. It was not until 1815 
that they learned of the action of the Triennial Con- 
vention in formally adopting them as the first mis- 
sionaries of the American Baptists. Meanwhile, a 
little wayside chapel had been built in which Mr. 
Judson received any who would come to him, and 
here he reasoned with them of life and death, of God 
and the soul, and the love of Christ. 

First-Fruits. At last the thrilling day came when 
he faced his first inquirer, six years from the time he 
had landed at Rangoon. Soon after came the exquisite 
joy of secretly baptizing their first timid convert, for 
it was death for a Buddhist to apostatize at this time. 
When, at nightfall, two others were later baptized, 



BEGINNINGS IN BURMA 31 

Airs. Judson wrote to a friend in America, " We felt, 
on the banks of the water, as a little, feeble, solitary 
band. Perhaps Jesus looked down on us, and pitied 
and forgave our weaknesses. " Slowly, one by one, 
the group of believers augmented until in 1822 Mr. 
Judson baptized the eighteenth convert. In 1820 this 
infant Burmese church addressed a letter to the breth- 
ren in America that thrills one with a sense of apos- 
tolic fervor. It began, " Brethren all, who live in 
America, the brethren who live in Burma address 
you/' — and closed with this postscript, " Brethren, 
there are in the country nine persons who have be- 
come disciples." 

Days in the Prison Pen. Dark and terrible days 
were ahead of the little church. Since the Apostle 
Paul penned the story of his sufferings for the gospel, 
there is no more heroic story than that of the hard- 
ships endured by the Judsons during this period. 
With the outbreak of war between Burma and Eng- 
land in 1824, Mr. Judson and Doctor Price were 
thrown into the death-prison at Ava, there to lie in a 
hot, stifling, dark, and filthy hovel, in which lay hud- 
dled a hundred prisoners in heavy chains. Here, with 
no food except what his heroic wife could get to him, 
part of the time dragging five heavy fetters, Judson 
was confined for eleven months. At the end of that 
time the prisoners were removed to the death-prison 
at Aungbinle for execution, under conditions of such 
terrible suffering that one of them died on the journey. 
No aspect of horror was wanting: the filth and stench 
of the dungeon, the ferocity and cruelty of the jailers, 



32 FOLLOWING THE SUNRISE 

the physical tortures to which the prisoners were sub- 
jected, the daily selection of one or another for death, 
the roars of the captive lioness, who, in her cage next 
the dungeon, was slowly starved to death because she 
was the emblem of the English, the never-ceasing 
apprehension of what their own fate might be, the 
stifling heat, the constant attacks of fever, the insuf- 
ficiency of food and water. 

Ann Hasseltine Judson, Heroine. During her hus- 
band's imprisonment Ann Hasseltine Judson showed 
that she was made of the stuff of heroes. Although 
the only free European in the city, and absolutely 
without protection, she never lost her faith or courage. 
She besieged the governor daily with argument and 
petition for the release of her husband, she begged 
food from door to door, she brought clothing and 
drink to the prisoners, she bribed the jailers to miti- 
gate a little now and then the cruel sufferings of their 
victims, she built a little bamboo shelter in the yard 
where during the day the prisoners were allowed to 
stay, and under this protected her husband from the 
burning heat of the sun. After the death of the lioness 
she secured the lion's cage as a shelter for him. Dur- 
ing the imprisonment, attended only by a faithful 
servant, she gave birth to a little daughter, and as 
soon as she could walk, staggering from weakness, she 
appeared again at the prison with her frail baby in 
her arms to take up once more her daily ministrations 
to her husband and the other prisoners. When the 
prisoners were secretly removed to Aungbinle she 
followed. Here she nursed her baby and her native 



G 
O 
in 
O 
2 




> 



5 



G 
o 

o 

2 




BEGINNINGS IN BURMA 33 

helpers through smallpox, contracted the disease her- 
self, and was later brought to death's door with 
spotted fever. During the time of her terrible illness 
at Aungbinle, Mr. Judson, although not released from 
the prison, was allowed to go about somewhat more 
freely, and dragging his heavy fetters he used to take 
the little wailing baby in his arms from door to door, 
begging kind Burmese mothers to give it nourishment. 

A Pen Portrait by Her Husband. We are indebted 
to the loving portrayal of her husband, many years 
later, for our only picture of the young heroine as she 
appeared during those terrible days. It seems that on 
the advice of her friend, a Burmese princess, wife of 
the governor of the palace, she had adopted Burmese 
dress as an added safeguard. " Behold her, then," 
said Mr. Judson, " her dark curls carefully straight- 
ened, drawn back from her forehead, and a fragrant 
cocoa blossom drooping like a white plume from a 
knot upon the crown; her saffron vest thrown open 
to display the folds of crimson beneath; and a rich 
silken skirt, wrapped closely about her fine figure, 
parting at the ankle and sloping back upon the floor. 
Behold her, standing in the doorway (for she was 
never permitted to enter the prison), her little blue- 
eyed blossom, wailing as it almost always did, upon 
her bosom, and the chained father crawling forth to 
the meeting." 

Joy Cometh in the Morning. When the war was 

ended in 1826, Mr. Judson, after rendering valuable aid 

as translator and interpreter during the negotiations 

between the English and Burmese, found himself, 

c 



34 FOLLOWING THE SUNRISE 

with wife and baby by his side, on the deck of a boat 
floating calmly down the Irawadi on a cool moon- 
light night, a free man. " I can never regret my twen- 
ty-one months of misery/' he said, " when I recall that 
one delicious thrill. I think I have had a better appre- 
ciation of what heaven may be ever since." 

Judson's Courage in Prison. , Not once during the 
long months of imprisonment had Judson given way 
to despair. While undergoing extreme suffering he 
used to encourage his fellow prisoners, by reminding 
them that the outcome of the war was sure to turn out 
to the weakening of the power of the tyrannical gov- 
ernment. 

Think what the consequence of this invasion must 
be. Here have I been ten years preaching the gospel to 
timid listeners who wish to embrace the truth but dare 
not; beseeching the emperor to grant liberty of con- 
science to his people, but without success ; and now, when 
all human means seem at an end, God opens the way by 
leading a Christian nation to subdue the country. It is 
possible that my life may be spared; if so, with what 
gratitude and ardor shall I pursue my work ; and if not, 
His will be done. The door will be opened for others 
who will do the work better. 

Escape of Wade and Hough. At the end of the war 
the work of years at Rangoon seemed swept away and 
the little mission completely broken up. Mr. Wade 
and Mr. Hough, Judson's fellow missionaries, had es- 
caped with their lives by what seemed a miracle. The 
orders had been given for their execution, the execu- 
tioners had sharpened their knives, and strewn the 



BEGINNINGS IN BURMA 35 

floor with sand to receive their blood, the prisoners 
with bared necks had knelt to receive the blow, when 
a broadside from the English war vessels so fright- 
ened the executioners that they threw down their 
knives and fled. Meanwhile, the wives of the heroic 
missionaries, disguised as Burmese servants, had 
eluded arrest, and when rescued by the English were 
all sent to Calcutta for safe-keeping. Here they were 
joined by George Dana Boardman, a new recruit for 
the mission. 

Mission Removed to Moulmein. It was out of the 
question to think of remaining at Rangoon, as the 
English were merely holding the place temporarily. 
It was, therefore, thought best to remove the mission 
to that portion of the territory ceded by the king to 
the English, a strip extending five hundred miles along 
the seacoast. Here it was decided to establish the 
mission in Amherst, a new town which the British 
government was building to be the seat of govern- 
ment. Through an unfortunate misunderstanding, how- 
ever, between the civil and military commissioners, the 
latter, Sir Archibald Campbell, decided to make another 
town, named Moulmein, the headquarters of the army. 
When it became evident that Moulmein and not Amherst 
was to be the successful aspirant for population, the mis- 
sion was again moved thither to a site presented by Sir 
Archibald Campbell, about a mile from the army post. 
Here Mr. Boardman brought his young bride, to " a 
lonely spot, for the thick jungle, close at hand, was the 
haunt of wild beasts, whose howls sounded dismally on 
the ears in the night-time/' 



36 FOLLOWING THE SUNRISE 

Death of Mrs. Judson. Within a few months after 
the close of the war, while her husband was still at Ava 
conducting negotiations regarding the treaty, Mrs. Jud- 
son died at Amherst. Six months later her little Maria 
was laid by her side under the hopia tree — " the tree of 
hope." The agonizing suspense, the wearing illness had 
proved too much for the frail body, but the light of her 
dauntless soul burned undimmed to the last. Her life, so 
pure, so lofty, so heartening in its heroism, is the precious 
possession of all Christian women. 

Judson's Translation of the Bible. It is difficult to 
estimate the depth and weight of influence of an 
apostolic man like Judson, but in the long procession 
of the centuries it may well be that his widest and 
most permanent influence will emanate not from his 
work as an evangelist, ever the dearest and most con- 
genial to his spirit, but from the laborious drudgery 
of translation, proof-reading, and publishing to which 
he compelled his eager spirit. When he fell on his 
knees in gratitude to God over his completed transla- 
tion of the Bible into Burmese, he had finished one of 
the noblest translations ever made, a work that was 
to exert the same influence over the intellectual and 
spiritual life of Burma that the translations of Wyclif 
and Luther had over England and Germany. " I have 
commended it to His mercy and grace; I have dedi- 
cated it to His glory," wrote Judson in a humble post- 
script of praise and dedication. 

Bible at Aungbinle. One of the cherished stories in 
regard to Judson's Bible is that relating to the loss 
and recovery of a portion of the manuscript. In order 



BEGINNINGS IN BURMA 37 

to preserve the precious pages, the work of years, Mrs. 
Judson had hidden it in a cushion which she sewed up 
in a pillow-case, and took to him to use during his 
imprisonment at Ava. When the prisoners were hur- 
riedly, removed from Ava to Aungbinle the cushion 
was carelessly thrown out in the yard, and here the 
hidden manuscript was rescued by a faithful servant, 
and at the close of the war was recovered by the Jud- 
sons. 

The Karens. With the close of the war and the re- 
moval of the headquarters to Rangoon a new chapter 
in the story of Baptist missions opened. Heretofore 
the work had been for the most part among the Bur- 
mans; from this time on, its greatest development was 
to be among the Karens, or " wild men." These were 
a subject people found throughout Burma, but located 
for the most part far back in the jungle. The paths 
that led to their hamlets were obscurely marked, along 
steep declivities and in the dry bed of mountain 
streams. They spoke a different language from the 
Burmese, by whom they had been persecuted and 
oppressed until they were a timid, irresolute, and 
servile people, filthy and drunken. These Karens, 
numbering one-tenth of the population, were parts of 
a far more numerous aboriginal race, scattered from 
Tibet southward through China and Siam. Mr. Jud- 
son had first observed them in Rangoon ; " small 
parties of strange, wild-looking men, clad in unshapely 
garments." They were called " Karen pigs " by the 
Burmese, and treated with great cruelty. It meant 
death to a Karen to be found with a book in his pos- 



38 FOLLOWING THE SUNRISE 

session. As late as 1851, the Burmese viceroy of Ran- 
goon told Mr. Kincaid that he would instantly shoot 
the first Karen he found who could read. 

Karen Traditions. The Karens were not Buddhists, 
but spirit worshipers. They had strange traditions of 
a father, God, named " Yuah," whom they once had 
worshiped, and of a book of life which they had lost. 
This book, they believed, would be recovered some 
day when strangers coming in ships from the West 
should bring back the book of God. Meanwhile, they 
believed that God had forsaken them because of their 
sins, and they propitiated the evil spirits, or nats, who 
thronged the dim depths of the forest. So similar 
were many of their traditions to the records in Genesis 
that it is evident that at some time in their wander- 
ings, through some source, they had been taught these 
stories. 

The Karen a Living Witness. The story of the 
introduction of Christianity among these simple and 
debased people, is one of the wonderful chapters in the 
history of Christian missions. Out of this despised 
race Christ has created a new nation. The breath of 
God has blown upon these slain in the valley of dry 
bones and they have lived and stood upon their feet, 
an exceeding great army. One who to-day goes 
among the Christian Karen villages, sees the neat 
homes, the tasteful dress, the little schoolhouse built 
and maintained by their own voluntary taxation, hears 
the church bell summon them to listen to the preach- 
ing of their own pastor, cannot believe that seventy- 
five years ago their ancestors were cowering savages 









#< -f ?/f 




A KAREN ASSOCIATION MEETING 




GETTING AN AUDIENCE IN BURMA 



BEGINNINGS IN BURMA 39 

without homes, or property, or education, or hope. 
The Karen is a living witness of the power of the 
gospel. 

Ko Tha Byu, the Karen Apostle. The human 
agent through whom the missionaries gained their 
first access to the Karens was a fresh illustration of 
the power of God to use the unlikeliest means. He 
was a robber and murderer, a slave of violent temper, 
indolent and ignorant, stupid and no longer young, by 
name Ko Tha Byu. He had been redeemed from his 
master by a Christian Burman, and by him transferred 
to the family of Mr. Judson, as a house servant. 
While serving the Judsons in Moulmein his poor, 
maimed soul seemed slowly to respond to the truth, 
and when in the spring of 1828 Mr. Boardman re- 
solved to make Tavoy the center of his Karen work, 
he took Ko Tha Byu with him to interpret his sermons 
from Burmese to Karen. Here, on May sixteenth, he 
was baptized, the first Karen convert. His services 
were of the utmost value to Judson, Wade, Boardman, 
and Mason in their early attempts to reach the Karens. 
The people were so wild and timid that they fled to the 
jungle at the sight of a white face, and so suspicious 
that no hearing could be gained unless the way had 
been prepared by their own people. The old man, Ko 
Tha Byu, was terribly limited. His slow mind could 
never apprehend the full message of the gospel. Ac- 
cording to Doctor Mason : 

He had very few thoughts, but those were grand ones : 
The fall of man, his need of a Saviour, the fulness of 
Christ, and the blessedness of heaven ; and he used these 



40 FOLLOWING THE SUNRISE 

thoughts like an auger in drilling a rock. It was round 
and round and round until the object was accomplished. 

Up and down through the mountains went this hum- 
ble apostle, preaching, praying, distributing tracts. Hun- 
ger could not daunt him. He waded rivers, he threaded 
jungles, he slept in the forests. His converts were fined 
and imprisoned, but persecution could not quench the fire 
he was lighting in the jungle. Little groups of Karens 
met stealthily at daybreak to read the one tract then 
translated into their language, or stole down at nightfall 
to receive secret instruction from the missionaries. When 
Ko Tha Byu died in 1840, after twelve years of disciple- 
ship, he had led multitudes of his people to Christ. The 
year he died, the Christian Karens in Pegu numbered 
twelve hundred and seventy, most of whom he led to the 
Saviour through his exertions. (Harvey.) 

In 1878 Karen Christians built in honor of his mem- 
ory Ko Tha Byu Hall at Bassein, at a cost of fifteen 
thousand dollars. 

George Dana Boardman: Founder of the Karen 
Mission. George Dana Boardman is rightly given the 
honor of being the founder of the Karen mission. He 
had the longing of the pioneer to learn what lies be- 
hind the mountains, and was the first of missionaries 
to leave the river paths and strike out for the interior 
of the country. He spoke Burmese with unusual flu- 
ency, and without waiting to master the Karen, deter- 
mined to go on tour through the jungle with Ko Tha 
Byu as interpreter. For three years he worked with 
the zeal of an apostle before death closed his brief 
service. When too weak to walk he was carried on a 
stretcher to the hills, there to see the newly arrived 
missionary, Francis Mason, who was later to become 



BEGINNINGS IN BURMA 41 

the translator of the New Testament into Karen, bap- 
tize thirty-four of his converts in a beautiful mountain 
stream. That same night he celebrated with them the 
Lord's Supper, and died peacefully next day as they 
were carrying him to his home. 

Sarah Boardman. His beautiful young wife, Sarah 
Boardman, carried on his work for three years. She 
founded schools that came to be regarded as models 
by the government, she made long missionary tours 
through the jungle with her little son by her side. 
" She climbed the mountain, traversed the marsh, 
forded the stream, and threaded the forest. To Mrs, 
Mason at Tavoy she wrote : 

You would better send the chair ; it is convenient to be 
carried over the streams when they are deep. You will 
laugh when I tell you that I have forded all the smaller 
ones. 

In the beginning of the fourth year of her widow- 
hood, she became the wife of Mr. Judson, and removed 
to Mandalay. She was radiantly beautiful in her 
home life as wife and mother, but found time to super- 
intend school work, direct the translation of the New 
Testament into the pagan language and interest her- 
self in all that concerned the mission. She died at 
sea on her way to the homeland in 1845. 

Work of Jonathan Wade. Closely associated with 
the name of George Dana Boardman in the founding 
of the Karen mission, must be placed those of Jona- 
than Wade and Elisha Abbott. Doctor Wade, by 
means of his great gifts as a linguist, reduced the 



42 FOLLOWING THE SUNRISE 

Sgaw and Pwo Karen dialects to writing, and com- 
piled a great dictionary and thesaurus of the Karen 
language in five volumes. In 1833, while on furlough, 
be established in Hamilton, New York, classes for in- 
tending missionaries, and so successfully taught the 
Karen language that his pupils were able to begin 
work almost at once when they reached Burma. When 
he returned in 1834 he took with him eleven recruits 
for the mission. His stirring addresses, given in 
hundreds of churches, had created a new tide of mis- 
sionary enthusiasm, a service sadly needed at the time. 
The old hero lived until 1874 to see many of the tri- 
umphs of the mission. 

Elisha Abbott; His Training of Karen Pastors. It 
was in 1837 that Elisha Abbott began his course in 
Bible instruction to the pioneer Karen pastors. The 
Burmese had forbidden them to possess a book or to 
learn to read. Their instruction had to be in secret, 
at night-time, in secluded spots. The story is told of 
a chief who came to Doctor Abbott to beg books. He 
refused him, saying: "But yesterday the heavy fetters 
fell from your ankles. Should you be found with 
books in your possession you would lose your head/' 
" So much sooner to heaven," was the nonchalant 
reply. In Mr. Abbott's time fierce persecutions by 
the Burmans had made the Karens unusually timid 
and nomadic in their habits. It was unsafe to hold 
meetings or to administer baptism save at night. Mr. 
Abbott has left an account of one of these meetings, 
when, in a village, three days back in the jungle from 
Bassein, he spoke from ten in the morning until mid- 



BEGINNINGS IN BURMA 43 

night, hardly taking time to eat. Whole companies of 
Karens surrounded him, who had traveled all day 
through the forest paths without eating, for fear lest 
they should be too late to hear the white teacher. 

The people hastened out, spread a mat on the ground 
in the open field, upon which I sat, and they themselves 
gathered around and sat on the ground. A few old men 
sat near who would question me. All around was the 
darkness and stillness of night. Not a cloud obscured 
the heavens, which was spread out over our heads as a 
beautifully bespangled curtain. In one hand I held a 
dimly burning taper, in the other the Word of God. Mid- 
night had long passed away ere we dispersed, and then 
they withdrew reluctantly. 

His Advocacy of Self-Support. Mr. Abbott was 
one of the earliest advocates of the principles of self- 
government and self-support. In this, he was ahead 
of his time. The custom had been universal to sup- 
port native pastors on missionary funds. He agitated, 
spoke, wrote letters: self-support was the burden of 
his addresses. It was due to his championship and 
that of the missionaries who followed him that the 
Karen mission in Bassein was the earliest mission 
station in the world to demonstrate on any large scale 
how superior to the older system of missionary sub- 
ventions is the policy of throwing the burden of sup- 
porting their own pastors on the native Christians. 
Rev. H. C. Carpenter, the historian at the Bassein 
mission, has written a full account of this matter in 
his book entitled " Self-Support in Bassein," published 
in Boston in 1863. It is a matter of pride to Baptists 



44 FOLLOWING THE SUNRISE 

to realize that this principle, not generally recognized 
before the opening of the twentieth century, found 
such early championship and testing in the Karen 
mission. It has met such success in the Karen field 
that out of seven hundred and thirty churches, seven 
hundred are self-supporting, and that virtually all of 
the six hundred village schools are self-supporting. 
" We use no mission funds for village schools/' says 
a typical report. Parents pay tuition fees for their 
children in higher schools, and raise money for build- 
ings in addition. The boarding-school for girls at 
Nyaunglebin is supported by sixteen small churches, 
who raised money for the girls' dormitory in addition 
to paying all tuition. This very station was, not so 
long ago, a home mission station opened by Karen 
Christians of Bassein. Thanbya, the veteran Karen 
pastor in Rangoon, is one of the few pastors who 
receive compensation from America. Practically all 
the other Karen workers are supported by the people. 
The Coming of the Vintons. The name which has 
been most closely entwined with the story of the 
Karen missions in the affections of American Baptists 
has been that of Justus Vinton, who, with his young 
wife, landed in Moulmein in December, 1834. They 
had studied Karen to such good purpose for a year 
at Hamilton and on the long voyage across the seas, 
that they were enabled to begin work within a week 
after they had landed. There were so many invita- 
tions from Karen villages to come and tell them of 
the gospel that, with superb courage, they separated, 
each took a band of native Christians, and went thus 



BEGINNINGS IN BURMA 45 

evangelizing from village to village. This plan they 
followed until 1848, for the most part in the district 
around Moulmein. Mr. Vinton's sweetness of spirit, 
his beautiful voice, his power in prayer, and life of 
self-denying, Christlike love so endeared him to the 
people that his name was known throughout Burma. 

Their Service While on Furlough. There are two 
services rendered by him and his wife which are 
deserving of special mention. The first occurred when 
they were in America, enjoying a much-needed fur- 
lough for rest and recuperation. The work which 
they accomplished during this furlough was perhaps 
as important for the interest of the kingdom in Burma 
as anything which they accomplished on the field. 
For 1848 was ebb-tide. The early enthusiasm of the 
missionary enterprise had departed, and a generation 
had arisen that knew not Judson. A nation has its moods, 
and the American mood was anti-mission. Religious feel- 
ing seemed cold and dead. Judson had written in 1847 : 

It is my growing conviction that the Baptist churches 
in America are behind the age in missionary spirit. They 
now and then make a spasmodic effort to throw off a 
nightmare of debt of some years' accumulation, and then 
sink back into unconscious repose. Then come paralyzing 
orders to retrench. New enterprises are checked in their 
very conception, and applicants for missionary employ 
are advised to wait. . . I thought they loved me, I thought 
my brethren in America were praying for us, and they 
have never once thought of us. 

The income of the Board had been so reduced that 
in 1846 they were seriously discussing abandoning 



46 FOLLOWING THE SUNRISE 

some of the missions. In such an hour Mr. Vinton 
returned home, and, going from church to church, 
made his appeal for the mission in Burma. Those 
who heard him could never forget his inspired prayers, 
his victorious faith, his story of the triumphs of re- 
deeming love. He warmed the frozen heart of the 
church with his wonderful singing of the " Mission- 
ary's Call/' It is no exaggeration to claim for him a 
large part in saving the day for missions. Meanwhile 
Mrs. Vinton was doing equally wonderful work for 
the women from her sick-bed. 

The Second War Between England and Burma. 
The second notable service of the Vintons occurred 
after their return to Moulmein. Here they found the 
relations between the English and the Burmans be- 
coming strained, and the poor Karens suffering all 
kinds of persecution. One day one of the converts in 
Moulmein said to Mrs. Vinton, " Mama, is it wrong 
to pray for war? " " Why? " said Mrs. Vinton. " Be- 
cause we are tired of being hunted like wild beasts, 
of being obliged to worship God by night in the forest, 
and never daring to speak of Jesus above a whisper. 
O Mama, may we not pray that the English may 
come and take our country, so that we may worship 
God in freedom and without fear? " " Yes, you may," 
she answered. And from that day the devout prayers 
of the Karen Christians were offered daily for the 
coming of the English. 

Their Service During the War. When the war 
broke out, in 1852, Eugenio Kincaid, the great evan- 
gelist to the Burmans, summoned Doctor Vinton to 



BEGINNINGS IN BURMA 47 

come to Rangoon to help protect the Christian Karens. 
Every village within fifty miles of Rangoon had been 
burned. Five thousand refugees were living in carts 
and under trees. Their standing crops had been fired, 
nameless cruelties had been inflicted on their women 
and children, and two of the pastors had already been 
crucified by the Burmese. Many of the Karens had 
been forced into the Burmese army to build the for- 
tifications and dig the trenches, but they could not be 
forced to kill their deliverers. No Karen bullet ever 
hit an Englishman. They either fired into the air, 
deserted in a body to the enemy, or fell pierced by 
the bullets of the men for whose coming they had 
prayed. The success of the British arms was ma- 
terially aided by both the active and passive co- 
operation of these despised Karens. 

Caring for the Refugees. The Vintons and Kin- 
caids were quartered in a deserted Buddhist monas- 
tery, and began their work of mercy. They built a 
smallpox hospital and placed it near their houses, so 
that they could better care for their patients. Feeding 
the hungry, clothing the naked, caring for the home- 
less, and ministering to the dying, they toiled both 
day and night. Companies of Karens came into Ran- 
goon from the jungles daily to take refuge under the 
protection of the English. A large school numbering 
over two hundred was built up, in which old people 
and children sat side by side learning to read the 
word of God. At the close of the war, the school was 
removed to Kemendine, and the foundation was laid for 
the present wonderful educational work in that place. 



48 FOLLOWING THE SUNRISE 

Teacher Vinton and the Famine. After peace was 
made, the famine followed the pestilence. Thousands 
had lost all they possessed through robbery and war. 
Rice was selling at starvation prices. The Karens 
looked to Teacher Vinton to help them. People lay 
dying of hunger in the streets. He began to give out 
his little store of rice. When he had exhausted all 
available supplies he went to the rice traders and 
said: 

" Will you trust me for a shipload of rice? I cannot 
pay you now, and I do not know when I can pay you, 
for I have received no remittance from America in a 
year. I cannot see these people die. If you will let 
me have the rice I will pay you as soon as I can." 

They answered, " Mr. Vinton, take all the rice you 
want. Your word is all the security we ask. You 
can have a dozen cargoes if you wish." 

He filled his granaries and outbuildings with rice, 
and gave it out to Christian and heathen alike without 
discrimination. So great was the need and so few the 
helpers that it was impossible to keep accurate ac- 
count. 

His friends in alarm said : " You are ruining your- 
self. You do not know the names of half of these 
people to whom you are giving the rice. How do 
you expect to get your pay? " 

His answer was, " God will see to that." And he 
did. Every cent of the money expended was recov- 
ered. When the famine was over that one act had 
opened the hearts of the people to the message of 
the gospel as nothing else could do. " This is the 



BEGINNINGS IN BURMA 49 

man who saved our lives," they said. " His religion 
is the one we want." Thousands were baptized. 
Churches were organized. Chapels and schoolhouses 
were built, and the hearts of both Burmans and Karens 
were turned toward God. 

An Unrealized Opportunity. The glowing hopes 
of a speedy triumph of the gospel in Burma raised by 
the wide-spread awakening of this time were destined 
not to be realized. The plastic moment passed, the 
exalted mood of the people changed, and their will- 
ingness to listen was replaced by indifference. One 
of the critical opportunities in the history of missions 
was thus unrealized because of the lethargy of the 
church on the home field. Then, as now, the crux of 
the situation was in the home base. Baptists kept 
their " thin red line of heroes " on the field, but neg- 
lected to support them adequately. Stations were un- 
dermanned, promising work was opened, then aban- 
doned, because illness or death drove the workers 
home, and there was no one to take their places. 
"There are abundant signs of energetic and success- 
ful work in early days and of comparative neglect 
since then," wrote Mr. Cross, of Sandoway; " there 
have been no male missionaries who stayed long 
enough to know the language, the work, or the people." 
If in that crisis hour of the early fifties, a serious, com- 
pact, concerted advance, adequately manned and sup- 
ported, had been made, Burma might have been won 
for Christ. 

Achievements on the Field. In spite of inadequate 
forces, illness, retrenchment, absence of comprehen- 



50 FOLLOWING THE SUNRISE 

sive policy, the* work accomplished was a miracle of 
achievement. " Where in the middle of the last cen- 
tury there was a dispirited and uncivilized people, 
there is to-day a Karen Christian community of one 
hundred and fifty thousand, supporting their own 
churches and schools. They have, moreover, a foreign 
missionary society which they support liberally. All 
the churches contribute to the theological seminary, 
for the endowment of which they are raising a gen- 
erous fund. The Burmese also contribute to the main- 
tenance of the Burmese theological seminary, schools, 
and churches. 

Baptist Educational System. The magnificent 
schools of the Baptist mission in Burma are worthy 
of the greatest pride and loyalty. What other mission 
can show such schools? There are thirty-five high 
schools and boarding-schools; among them schools of 
the highest rank, such as Kemendine and Morton 
Lane, for girls; Mandalay High School and Ko Tha 
Byu High School, for boys. In these schools are 
about five thousand boys and fifteen hundred girls. 
The Rangoon Baptist College, the Christian college 
in Burma, enrolls over a thousand students — twelve 
hundred in all departments, forty-eight in college 
proper — and is a tremendous power for Christ. In 
1912 the Baptist Christians of Burma supported over 
six hundred village schools without any help from 
America and paid, besides, in board and tuition fees 
to the higher schools, $93,000. It is in these schools 
that there is being generated the power which shall 
make Burma Christian. If the young people who are 



"V ^H^.^ «v - : Irani 




■■■ n 


EL* 







CUSHING MEMORIAL BUILDINGS. RANGOON BAPTIST COLLEGE 




THE VINTON MEMORIAL AT RANGOON 



BEGINNINGS IN BURMA 51 

to be the leaders go out from the schools consecrated, 
aggressive Christians, nothing can prevent the tri- 
umph of Christianity within a century. Baptists hold 
the key to the situation. 

Karen Devotion to Education. As an illustration 
of the remarkable interest taken in education by the 
Karens, the Shwegyin schools may be mentioned. 
The churches in this district, in addition to doing 
foreign mission work in Siam, have built a house for 
the missionary ladies costing 8,000 rupees,* a school 
building costing 10,000 rupees, and a girls' dormitory 
costing 2,000 rupees. They raised every bit of this 
without any outside assistance whatever. In 1898 
they bought about thirty acres of land for the school 
compound at Nyaunglebin, and have invested in build- 
ings already 25,000 rupees. The school at Nyaukkyi 
(pronounced Nowk-jee) has never had the oversight 
of a missionary, but has been entirely in charge of a 
Karen evangelist, who has put up buildings, engaged 
teachers, managed the boarding department, and made 
the school such a power that children have come four 
or five days' journey to attend his school. Fifteen 
evangelists have already come from this one school. 

The Mission Press. One of the strongest agencies 
in the dissemination of the gospel in Burma has been 
the printing-press, organized by Rev. George Hough 
in 1816, and conducted by him until 1829, when 
Rev. Cephas Bennett began his many years of devoted 
service. His successor, Mr. Frank D. Phinney, has 

*The rupee is equivalent to about thirty-three cents. 



52 FOLLOWING THE SUNRISE 

been in charge since 1882, and has brought the press 
to a splendid state of efficiency. This press has printed 
not only Bibles, tracts, commentaries, and periodical 
literature, but translations from the best works in 
English literature, and a large number of the text- 
books used in the schools throughout Burma. In a 
recent year, for example, ninety thousand tracts and 
pamphlets were printed for the Christian Literature 
Society of India, twenty-five thousand books for 
the British and Foreign Bible Society, and many 
thousand school-books for MacMillan to be used in 
government schools, besides Sunday-school papers, 
lesson leaves, and religious periodicals printed for the 
mission itself. This press alone is one of the greatest 
agencies in the uplift of all the people of Burma. It 
has been said to be Christianizing a nation by ma- 
chinery. 

Work Among Primitive People. Baptist missions 
in Burma have had a distinct call to the many primi- 
tive races found holding the mountain territory to 
the north and scattered over the plains. There are 
the Chins, 180,000 strong; the Kachins, numbering 
about 100,000, with much larger numbers across the 
border in China; the Kaws and Muhsos, and the 
more civilized Shans and Talains of the plains. Each 
story is of thrilling interest. The first convert among 
the fierce Chins, drunken and filthy, was a woman 
who was won to Christ by a Burmese Christian 
woman. It was the undiscourageable faith of Mrs. 
B. C. Thomas that established the first Chin school in 
Henzada. Out of this most hopeless-looking material 



BEGINNINGS IN BURMA 53 

a thousand Christian communicants have been gath- 
ered, and recently thirty people from one village came 
at one time, were baptized in the beautiful pool with 
its background of splendid mountains, and sat down 
for the first time to the Lord's Supper. At Tiddim, 
Mr. Cope reports such an eagerness for education that 
boys who have worked all day in the fields come to 
school at night, study until they fall asleep, stay all 
night in the schoolhouse and get in two more hours 
before going to work in the morning. The Chin 
teacher preaches during the day and teaches at night. 
He works from 5 A. M. to 9 P. M. There are four 
such schools in the Tiddim field. 

The Kachins had, as their pioneer and advocate, 
Dr. W. H. Roberts, of Bhamo. Like the Chins, they 
are wild mountain people, always at war among them- 
selves, full of fear and superstition in regard to evil 
spirits. They too have proved to be fine raw material 
out of which to build men and Christians. Forty- 
four Kachin pupils from the school at Myitkyina tried 
a recent government examination, forty-two of them 
passed. The British Commissioner, Sir Harvey Adam- 
son, visited the school and was delighted with the 
industrial work. With his own hand he turned several 
furrows with the plow, much to the astonishment of the 
pupils, who marveled that such a grand person did not 
despise manual labor. 

Kachin Sapolio. " Before I came to Bhamo," writes 
Miss Ragon, " I had always heard the Kachins re- 
ferred to as the dirtiest people on the face of the 
earth, and I have never had cause to doubt the state- 



54 FOLLOWING THE SUNRISE 

ment till the other day. Now I know that the desire 
to be clean did exist in one girl's heart. She came to 
me for medicine; her face, neck, and hands were all 
swollen and the skin burned off. Upon inquiry, I 
found that she had mixed wood-ashes and soap and 
had washed with it, rubbing it in well. When I asked 
her what possessed her to do such a thing, she very 
meekly said she had noticed that when I wanted things 
nice and clean I had my cook use ashes with the soap. 
. . The work is evangelistic in the truest sense. They 
come from such depths that Christianity must be 
lived into them before they are able to grasp it. 
Ask them if they understand the message, and they 
will answer, ' We understand what you say, but we 
don't know what you mean.' The thoughts and ideals 
of Christianity are so foreign to their point of view 
that a statement of them simply means nothing to 
the mind of a jungle person. He must see them active 
in a man's life before he can grasp them, or before 
they appeal to him. I have always believed in school 
work, and for Kachins find it absolutely essential." 

The Shan States. The Shans belong to one of the 
great races of the Far East, numbering several mil- 
lions scattered through Siam, Burma, China, and As- 
sam. In Burma is the advance guard, numbering 
some three-quarters of a million, that through several 
centuries struggled with the Burmans for the mastery 
of the peninsula. They are, like the Burmans, Budd- 
hist, and have been very slow to respond to the 
preaching of the gospel. Since the opening of worls 
in the Shan States in 1860, at Toungoo, by Dr. Moses 



BEGINNINGS IN BURMA 55 

II. Bixby, work has been done among the Shans. But 
in the Shan country, as among the Burmans, the 
richest results have been achieved among the un- 
civilized mountain tribes, the Muhsos, Kaws, Lahu, and 
others. 

Ingathering at Kengtung. It was in 1901 that Mr. 
Young, who had gone to work among the Shans, came 
in contact with the immigrant Muhsos. Here were 
people with a cotton cord tied around their wrists in 
sign of their belief in one God, their abhorrence of 
intoxicants, and their search for teachers to tell them 
the will of God. In great mass movements during the 
next few years, ten thousand of these brave, primitive 
people cut the cords from their wrists and received 
Christian baptism. The revival has spread quietly 
and irresistibly into other tribes and across the moun- 
tains into China. The first chapter of mass evangelism 
is barely closing; the second of the education and 
training of these primitive people is just opening. 
The language proved very inadequate to express the 
ideas of the Bible. For two years it was impossible 
to translate the Lord's Prayer, for there was no word 
for "kingdom," "hallow," "temptation," or "evil." 
The missionaries had to hammer out the language, 
as a goldsmith does gold, to make it cover new words. 
These people had a set of traditions which were as 
wonderful a preparation for the gospel as were those 
of the Karens, and were similar in character. 

The Christian Karens made magnificent response 
to this new opening for the gospel at Kengtung. 
Ba Te, a prosperous lawyer in Rangoon, gave up his 



56 FOLLOWING THE SUNRISE 

practice and was sent as a missionary to these wild 
people. He went on a salary of seventeen dollars a month, 
and, after years of devoted service at Kengtung, is 
now teaching in the theological seminary at Insein. 

Already the Christians in the mountain tribes are 
beginning to do personal work for Christ. Men in 
many villages have given from ten days to a month 
of their time in personal evangelism. 

Present-Day Problems. Interesting and valuable 
as has been the work among these primitive peoples, 
it is clear that the time demands a new emphasis on 
other work. Burma is to-day the richest province of 
British India. It is attracting immigration through- 
out the Orient. There are hundreds of thousands of 
Chinese, and the time is in sight when there may be 
a million. This great and growing and influential 
Chinese population demands attention. From penin- 
sular India come multitudes of Telugu and Tamil and 
Bengali people, who already number a million and a 
quarter. Jostling the self-satisfied Burman Buddhists 
are Mohammedan traders, Hindu money-lenders, 
Telugu coolies. In Burma's little " melting-pot " it 
looks sometimes as if the Burman himself might be 
overwhelmed. 

Work Among Immigrants from Peninsular India. 
The work among the Tamil, Telugu, and other immi- 
grants is in charge of Rev. W. F. Armstrong, his wife, 
his son, and his daughter Kate, a remarkable family. 
The Woman's Society supports eight day-schools, 
with six hundred and thirty-five pupils ; a school at 
Ahlone, fifty-five pupils; Union Hall, Rangoon, two 




BURMESE CHRISTIAN WOMEN 



BEGINNINGS IN BURMA 57 

hundred and sixty pupils; Mizpah Hall, Moulmein, 
one hundred and ninety-two pupils. One entire 
church is composed almost wholly of converts from 
Islam. There is a beautiful Bible- woman, Sarahama, 
who speaks Tamil and Telugu fluently. The Chris- 
tian teachers in the schools — they themselves the 
products of mission work in India — number forty- 
eight men and ten women. They teach for five days 
and do evangelistic preaching the other two. For six 
years Mizpah Hall, in competition with all India, has 
won a medal in the International Sunday-school 
examinations. One of the orphan boys has won four 
silver medals in four years. The buildings are in- 
adequate and unworthy of the mission. Mrs. Arm- 
strong says that the crowded temporary quarters of 
the kindergarten " are a disgrace/' " Unless some- 
thing is done soon we shall lose all chance to keep 
what has been gained in the Indian work in Burma." 
The Unreached Burmans. But the greatest present- 
day problem and unreached population in Burma 
to-day are the Burmese. Baptist work began among 
the Burmans. To them it gave the Burmese Bible, 
and the precious lives of many of the greatest mis- 
sionaries, among them that Pauline woman, Mrs. 
Maria B. Ingalls, whose story of the Queen's Bible 
is so well known to every Baptist. But the great 
mass of the Burmese are to-day unreached. Are they 
unreachable? The three thousand Burmese church- 
members, the splendid churches like that at Moul- 
mein, are sufficient answer. Some of the most 
beautiful Christians in Burma have been Burmans. 



58 FOLLOWING THE SUNRISE 

Yet the field is difficult. There are in the Bap- 
tist mission staff forty-seven missionaries working 
among Burmans, and only thirty-nine among the 
Karens. The problem of the immediate future is a 
determined, adequate, systematic evangelization of the 
Burmans. The time is ripe for it. Burman villages 
are beginning to ask for teachers. Ninety per cent 
of the Burmans live in rural communities. It is there 
that they are most approachable. The next few years 
should see a faithful, courageous facing of the whole 
Burman problem. As long as the Burman remains 
unwon, Christ is defeated in Burma. To say that 
Buddhists cannot be won is to deny the power of the 
gospel. It may need a generation of secret prayer 
to prepare the church for this advance, but it must 
come. The Baptists of America surely have some- 
thing to communicate to the Buddhists of Burma. 

Work Among Eurasians. Scattered throughout 
Burma are large numbers of Eurasians, those who 
descended from English fathers and native mothers. 
As these are all English-speaking, missionary work 
may be done among them in the English language. 
While not the most numerous, the Eurasians are 
among the most influential portions of the population, 
as is clearly shown by the numbers who succeed in 
the civil service in capturing important positions in 
the government. Their ability as teachers and skilled 
workers is recognized everywhere. Because of their 
mixed parentage they have command of two lan- 
guages, and usually understand one or two others. 
They also understand the customs and ideals of the 



BEGINNINGS IN BURMA 59 

people of Burma in a way that it is very difficult for 
a foreigner to achieve. 

Four Centers. The four centers of Baptist work 
among Eurasians are Moulmein, Rangoon, Mandalay, 
and Maymyo. The schools located at Moulmein and 
Mandalay have more calls for teachers than they can 
supply. The Catholics are keenly alert to the impor- 
tance of securing the Eurasians. The richest man in 
Burma to-day is a Catholic Eurasian who was a little 
boy in a Baptist school years ago when it was decided 
to abandon work among Eurasians. His loyalty and 
gifts very properly go to the church which took him 
in and educated him. The future of Baptist work will 
be strongly influenced by the manner in which re- 
sponsibility to these Eurasian people is discharged. 
If soundly converted, they may do a great work for 
other Burmese natives. In fact, the Eurasian work, 
begun in the days of Judson in Moulmein, was the 
parent of the English-speaking church in Bangalore. 
The Mandalay Eurasian church has its daughter 
church in Maymyo. A Burmese church in Maymyo 
is another offshoot, and the likelihood is that Tamil 
and Telugu work, already maintained at Maymyo by 
these Eurasians, will result in churches among these 
immigrant peoples. Mr. Davenport at Mandalay has 
been called the " Apostle to the Eurasians," in that 
he has clearly seen the strategic importance of these 
half-brothers and sisters of the English in the conquest 
of Burma for Christ. 



6o FOLLOWING THE SUNRISE 



Facts About Burma 

Population 12,141,676 

Buddhists number (1911) 10,384,579 

Protestant Christians number (1911) 149,799 

Roman Catholics number ( 191 1 ) 60,282 

Baptists number (1911) 64,035 

From 1901 to 191 1 Buddhists increased 13.2% 

From 1901 to 191 1 Christians increased 43-4% 

Protestant adherents number not less than 300,000. 

Protestant communicants number one to eighty-one non- 
Christians. 

Christians number one to fifty-seven non-Christians. 

Great majority of Buddhists strongly animistic. 

Education of girls chiefly in hands of Christians. 

Mendicant Buddhist monks, a great drain on country, estimated 
to number 100,000. 



Baptist Educational Institutions in Burma 

Karen Theological Seminary, Insein, Burma. D. A. W. Smith, 
D. D., president; W. F. Thomas, D. D., and native faculty. 

Established in 1845, it has an annual enrolment of from 125 
to 150. The Karen churches contribute liberally toward its cur- 
rent expenses, and have also provided a substantial endowment. 
A number of the graduates go each year as missionaries to 
unevangelized tribes. 

Burman Theological Seminary, Insein, Burma. John McGuire, 
D. D., president, and native faculty. 

At least six of the races of Burma are usually represented in 
this seminary. It is, however, much smaller than its sister 
institution on the same compound, the average attendance being 
twenty-five. It was given a new building in 1909. 



BEGINNINGS IN BURMA 61 

Burmese Woman's Bible School, Insein, Burma. Miss Harriet 
Phinney, Miss Ruth W. Ranney. 

This school, nearly a mile distant from the theological sem- 
inary, is entirely supported by the Burma churches, and its 
graduates are doing a noble work in all parts of Burma. 

Karen Woman's Bible School, Rangoon, Burma. Mrs. M. M. 
Rose. 

The Karens support this school, to which about seventy-five 
young women come annually. 

Rangoon Baptist College, Rangoon, Burma. E. W. Kelly, Ph. D., 
principal; L. E. Hicks, Ph. D., principal emeritus; David 
Gilmore, M. A., J. F. Smith, Wallace St. John, Ph. D., 
H. E. Safford, M. A, F. C. Herod, R. L. Howard, M. A., 
R. P. Currier, and large native faculty. 

The only Christian college in Burma. Many converts made 
each year from the student body. It was founded in 1872, and 
has an attendance of 1,100 in all departments. The Cushing 
Memorial Buildings were dedicated in 1909, and a new high- 
school building is to be erected. 

Mandalay High School, Mandalay, Burma. H. W. Smith, 
principal. 

Only Baptist high school for boys in upper Burma. Attend- 
ance, 300. 

Ko Tha Byu High School, Bassein, Burma. Miss Clara B. 
Tingley, principal. 

Karens pay all current expenses of this boarding-school of 
800 pupils, besides erecting and equipping the buildings. 

Morton Lane Girls' School, Moulmein, Burma. Miss Agnes 
Whitehead, Miss Lisbeth B. Hughes, Miss Elsie M. Northrup. 

A strong normal department in this school. 



62 FOLLOWING THE SUNRISE 

Kemendine Girls* School, Rangoon, Burma. Mrs. Ida B. Elliott, 
Miss J. G. Craft, Miss Margaret M. Sutherland, Miss Lillian 
Eastman. 

Nearly 400 girls enrolled from kindergarten to normal school 
department. 

English Girls' High School, Moulmein, Burma. Miss A. L. 
Prince, Miss Lena Tillman. 

A valuable work done among English-speaking and Eurasian 
population. 



American Baptist Mission Press, Rangoon, Burma. F. D. Phin- 
ney, superintendent; J. B. Money, S. E. Miner, P. R. Hackett, 
assistants. Established in 1816, the service rendered by this 
press has been an outstanding feature of mission work in 
Burma. In 1906 a large, well-lighted building on the principal 
street in Rangoon was completed. Over 200 men and women 
are employed in the press, which supplies Scriptures, text-books, 
tracts, and other literature for all the principal races of Burma, 
and is the chief supply house for educational material. 



Bibliography 

Haystack Prayer Meeting, One Hundredth Anniversary of. 
Boston, American Board of Commissioners for Foreign 
Missions, 1907. 

Strong, Story of the American Board, pp. 3-20. Boston, Ameri- 
can Board, 1910. 

Vail, Morning Hour of American Baptist Missions. Philadelphia, 
American Baptist Publication Society, 1907. 

Describes the various missionary efforts of Baptists before 
1814. 

Hill, The Immortal Seven. Philadelphia, American Baptist Pub- 
lication Society, 1913. 



BEGINNINGS IN BURMA 63 

Judson, Adoniram J ad son, a Biography. Philadelphia, Ameri- 
can Baptist Publication Society. 

Wayland, Memoir of Adoniram Judson, 2 Vols. Boston, Phillips, 
Sampson & Company, 1854. 
Valuable for letters, descriptions, and other details not found 

in briefer treatment. 

Hubbard, Ann of Ava. Philadelphia, American Baptist Publica- 
tion Society, 1913. 

Taylor, Memoir of Luther Rice. Baltimore, 1841. 

Contennial Dates. Boston, American Baptist Foreign Mission 
Society, 1913. 

Merriam, A History of American Baptist Missions, Chaps. I to 
III. Philadelphia, American Baptist Publication Society, 
1913. 

Hull, Judson the Pioneer. Philadelphia, American Baptist Pub- 
lication Society, 19 13. 



AMONG ANIMISTS IN ASSAM 




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CHAPTER III 
AMONG ANIMISTS IN ASSAM 

The Land of Assam. The province of Assam lies 
between Bengal on the east, Tibet on the north, Burma 
on the southeast, and the Indian Ocean on the south. 
In shape it is a majestic amphitheater, surrounding 
the great valley of the Brahmaputra River. The Him- 
alayas guard the north, and to the east and south the 
noble ranges known as the Garo, the Mikir, and the 
Naga Hills, though we should call them high moun- 
tains. Assam lies about as far south as Florida, but 
is far hotter, with steaming valleys and dense jungles 
filled with wild beasts ; one section records the heaviest 
rainfall in the world. Here are the famed tea-gardens 
and cotton-plantations that are drawing to the province 
laborers from many countries. In the mountains are 
wonderful mineral wealth and noble forests of hard 
woods. 

The Races of Assam. Assam too is a melting-pot 
for many races. At least eighty languages are spoken 
in a population of six millions. The Assamese, about 
a fourth of the whole, are valley people, a mixed race 
descended from those who conquered the land cen- 
turies ago. They are idolaters after the sort of the 
most degraded Hinduism, full of caste and supersti- 
tion and hideous immorality. They are indolent too, 

6 7 



68 FOLLOWING THE SUNRISE 

with indifference and contempt for new forms of 
thought or life. There is also a large section of the 
population made up of Bengali immigrants from the 
west, both Hindu and Moslem. There are, besides, 
Chinese and Laos and Shan folk, who come to work 
in the tea-gardens and rice-plantations. On the moun- 
tains and in the forests are the many tribes of primi- 
tive people, the Garos, Nagas, Mikirs, and others, 
savage and bloodthirsty. In the old days their fierce 
marauding bands made life insecure to dwellers in the 
plain, and the Garo and Naga head-hunters wore with 
pride their necklaces of cowrie shells, each shell of 
which represented the head of a human victim they 
had slain. 

Planting of the Mission. Assam is one of the oldest 
of the mission fields entered by the American Baptists. 
When the mission was planted it was thought that 
Assam would prove the highway by which the gospel 
should enter into closed China. The caravan routes 
from India lay through Assam, and it was planned to 
establish a chain of missions by which the mission- 
aries should introduce the gospel into the western 
provinces of China. The opening for the mission 
came through the invitation of the English commis- 
sioner residing at Gauhati. He promised to give one 
thousand rupees if the American missionaries would 
settle in Assam, and a thousand more for the first 
printing-press. Two missionaries in Burma, Nathan 
Brown and O. B. Cutter, a practical printer, were set 
apart for this work. In the two months before leav- 
ing Burma Mr. Brown acquired a vocabulary of three 



AMONG ANIMISTS IN ASSAM 69 

thousand words in Shan in the expectation that this 
would be the language of the territory in Assam to 
which he was going. Adoniram Judson wrote in re- 
gard to the enterprise, " My heart leaps for joy to 
think of Brother Brown at Sadiya and of all the inter- 
vening stations between there and Bangkok, Siam. 
Happy lot, to live in these days." The Browns and 
the Cutters went over to Calcutta, and from there set 
sail in a crazy little native boat for a voyage of eight 
hundred miles across the bay and up the Brahmaputra 
River. They journeyed for four months, seeking a 
location for the mission. After numerous adventures 
and hairbreadth escapes, they settled at Sadiya. Dur- 
ing the months of the voyage they had been diligently 
studying the language, with the aid of a Shan teacher 
sent to them by Major Jenkins, the British commis- 
sioner. Imagine their consternation when on visiting 
the villages around Sadiya they found only a handful 
of Shans in the population, and learned, on further 
investigation, that the main body of these people were 
gone out of their reach, beyond the mountains. There 
was nothing to do but put to it and learn Assamese. 
Quality of the Pioneers. Of what splendid stuff are 
missionaries made. Nothing daunted by this bad be- 
ginning, they adjusted themselves to building a home 
in the wilderness. They made the axes by which 
timber was to be cut for their dwellings; they made 
the bricks and baked them, burned the lime for the 
mortar, and in the meanwhile, in their struggle for 
life, picked up Assamese without dictionary, or gram- 
mar, or interpreter. It was the same old methodless 



70 FOLLOWING THE SUNRISE 

method that John Williams used with such good 
effect in the South Seas, and it gave them a grip on 
the every-day vocabulary of the people that no book 
study could ever have given. In three months Mrs. 
Brown and Mrs. Cutter were teaching girls, and Mr. 
Brown, true to Yankee traditions, had compiled a 
spelling-book. 

A Genius for Languages. Nathan Brown had a 
genius for languages. In twenty-seven months after 
they had settled their huts in the forest he had trans- 
lated into Assamese eleven school-books, containing 
two hundred and thirty pages, and thirteen chapters 
of Matthew's Gospel. Mr. Cutter had printed school- 
books and Gospels, nearly five thousand copies of 
them. Later, Mr. Brown became the translator of 
the New Testament into Assamese, and saw it 
through three editions. He wrote a life of Christ, a 
catechism, and a story of Joseph. He translated " Pil- 
grim's Progress," and wrote many hymns. After 
twenty years of unremitting toil in Assam it became 
evident that in order to save his life Nathan Brown 
must return to America. This he did, in 1855, and 
later, despairing of restoration to health, he severed 
his connection with the society, afterward, however, be- 
coming one of the first missionaries to Japan. 

Bible Translations. In fact the missionaries in 
Assam have added laurels to the many won by Bap- 
tist missionaries as translators. In the field of lexi- 
cography and translation the denomination has cause 
to feel great pride in the record made by its mis- 
sionaries. E. W. Clark, D. D., the beloved missionary 




CHRISTIAN TANCKHUL NACAS AT X'KHRUL 




IN THE INDUSTRIAL SCHOOL AT JORHAT 



AMONG ANIMISTS IN ASSAM 71 

to the Nagas, so recently deceased, gave them the book of 
God in their own tongue. Scholarly and distinguished 
service on the revision and translation committees has 
been rendered by E. G. Phillips, D. D., M. C. Mason, 
D. D., P. H. Moore, D. D., and A. K. Gurney, D. D. 

Early Industrial Missions. When we conceitedly 
suppose that industrial missions are a modern devel- 
opment, due to the broader equipment of our foreign 
missionaries, it is good to remember the English 
Baptist beginnings in India, and that the very first 
year in Assam Mr. Brown wrote to the Board in 
Boston, telling of the piteous destitution of the people, 
and asking that a scientific farmer be sent out to teach 
the people agriculture. " The soil around Sadiya," he 
wrote, " is inferior to none in the world, producing all 
the tropical fruits, and would produce nearly all those 
of the temperate regions." In every land where mis- 
sionaries have gone they have been the pioneers of 
better industrial life. Tea, an indigenous plant, was 
discovered by an early missionary to Assam. They 
have introduced coffee-culture into Africa, orange and 
cotton growing in the South Sea Islands, have been 
weavers, smiths, bricklayers, printers, lacemakers, 
architects, road-builders, and civil engineers. The slow- 
ness and indifference of the home church has been the 
only limitation to their efforts. 

Mission at Sadiya Abandoned. While the Browns 
and Cutters were toiling in the language, translating 
the New Testament and preparing school-books, the 
wild hill-folk broke out in insurrection in 1839, fired 
the town, killed the commandant and forced the mis- 



72 FOLLOWING THE SUNRISE 

sionaries and townsfolk into the fort, where they 
existed through four months of famine and disease. 
The town and surrounding country was depopulated 
through fear of these fierce hill-tribes, and the mission 
was broken up. The Bronsons decided to go to Jaipur, 
where large tea-gardens were being established and 
where there was a prospect of a growing population. 
Thus rung down the curtain on the first act of mis- 
sions in Assam. It was sixty-six years before the 
work so disastrously interrupted at Sadiya was re- 
sumed. In 1906, however, the station was reopened 
by the Jackmans, who began work for the Abors, but 
hoped also to reach the Miri people in the mountains. 
The following year Doctor and Mrs. Kirby joined 
them to begin medical work. Sadiya is at present an 
important center for many tribes, and because on the 
road to one of the leading passes into Tibet it seems 
destined to be increasingly important from a political 
and commercial standpoint, and hence increasingly 
valuable as a center for missionary work. 

Printing-Press at Jaipur. When the missionaries 
were driven out of Sadiya they decided, as has been 
said, to establish the work at Jaipur. Here the print- 
ing-press was soon set up and was busy in getting out 
the first books in five different languages. Few people 
have any idea of the incessant and exhausting work 
done by missionaries in every land in the composition 
and printing of text-books. It is no exaggeration to 
say that the missionaries have provided the text-books 
for the schools of most of the non-Christian world. A 
terrible epidemic of fever in Jaipur forced the mis- 



AMONG ANIMISTS IN ASSAM 73 

sionaries for a time to take refuge in the mountains, 
and there they lived like tree-men on a platform in a 
big tree, with only the leaves for a roof. It is related 
of Mrs. Brown during this period that when she had 
started home with two sick children, she snatched time 
to complete the manuscript of the arithmetic she was 
preparing for the press, while tossing about in the 
wretched little boat which took her from Jaipur to 
Calcutta. Perceiving the importance of the station, 
Mr. Brown kept writing home to plead that a mis- 
sionary be sent for each race, saying that this work 
was but a drop in the ocean, and would be soon lost 
in the desolate darkness unless reenforcements were at 
once sent. 

Reenforcement Sent to Assam. In 1837 Miles Bron- 
son and Jacob Thomas, with their wives, braved the 
perils of the eight-hundred-mile voyage from Calcutta in 
the usual native boat, nearly perished during the hard- 
ships of the trip, and when they were within an hour of 
Sadiya Mr. Thomas was accidentally killed. When 
an English officer had urged Mr. Bronson not to 
attempt the ascent of the river that season, his reply 
was characteristic of the quality of the man : 

" Would you hesitate/' he asked, " if you were 
ordered to join the regiment in Sadiya? " 

" No, sir," came the quick reply. 

" Then we dare not delay when our heavenly Cap- 
tain bids us advance to join the little force awaiting 
and expecting our arrival/' 

Planting a Mission at Sibsagor. In 1841 it began 
to be seen that Jaipur was not the best location for 



74 FOLLOWING THE SUNRISE 

the mission, as the tea-gardens had proved disappoint- 
ing and the population was continually fluctuating. 
After a tour in which a number of locations had been 
investigated, it was agreed that Sibsagor furnished 
the best opening, and in 1843 Jaipur was abandoned. 
By 1846 there were six hundred pupils in the Sibsagor 
schools; and nearly four million pages of school-books, 
hymnals, catechisms, tracts, and Gospels had been 
printed by the mission press. The work in Sibsagor, 
however, has proved disappointing as far as numerical 
results among the Assamese are concerned. Statistics, 
gathered at the time of the Jubilee Conference in 1896, 
showed that only forty-four Assamese converts had 
been baptized through the Sibsagor station during 
the fifty years. During this same period, many hun- 
dreds of baptisms had occurred among the hill people. 
Nor was the experience at Sibsagor unique. In gen- 
eral it may be said that the most encouraging results 
in Assamese missions have been met among the primi- 
tive hill people, and not among Assamese. 

Some Early Converts. During the first ten years at 
Sibsagor but twelve self-supporting churches were 
formed among these hill people, with a membership of 
six hundred and fifty-two. Yet some of those few 
scattering early converts among the Assamese were 
wonderful trophies of the gospel. The first convert, 
Nidi Levi, became a great peacher, poet, and trans- 
lator, and wrote hymns that will never be forgotten 
among his countrymen. Another, Kandura, a con- 
vert from the orphanage established by Doctor Bron- 
son in Nowgong in 1843, had grown up to be a good 



AMONG ANIMISTS IN ASSAM 75 

scholar, and held a government position paying him 
twenty dollars a month. When Mr. Whiting, the mis- 
sionary at Gauhati, was compelled to return home, and 
the little church would be left shepherdless, Kandura 
voluntarily relinquished his distinguished position (for 
such it was in native eyes) and became pastor at a 
salary of seven dollars and fifty cents a month. " Can 
you hold out until help comes ? " asked the missionary. 
I My wish," replied Kandura, " is to hold on until death." 
An Old Bard. At the time of the Jubilee Confer- 
ence a letter was read from I. J. Stoddard, giving 
reminiscences of the early days in the Assam Mission, 
in which he told the story of another early convert, a 
little dried-up old man whom he first met at Gauhati 
in 1867. This man had been in Goalpara when the 
English evangelist Bion was distributing tracts in the 
bazaar. He took one called the " True Refuge." The 
old man had been a sort of village bard, going from 
village to village, chanting songs about the gods. So 
he learned this new sura and chanted it over many 
times until he began to understand it a little, and to 
be a bit interested and a little frightened. The people, 
when he began to chant the " True Refuge," ridiculed 
him. But finally he started for Gauhati to find a teacher 
who could tell him the meaning of the strange writing. 
He and his wife were nine days on the journey, wading 
through water and mud, sleeping under trees, wet and 
hungry and almost starving. The people in the vil- 
lages through which he passed thought him crazy, 
because he called out to every one he met, " Life, 
life, eternal life! Who will tell us about it?" At 



76 FOLLOWING THE SUNRISE 

Gauhati he found the missionaries, who taught him 
the answer to the questions that were perplexing 
him, and later baptized him, and from this time the 
old man went from village to village with a joyful 
heart, chanting salvation to the people. 

Heroic Endurance. Assamese missions in these 
early years needed the kind of courage which could 
hold on until death. Missionaries were invalided 
home, or died on the field. Families were broken up 
by the death of wife or mother. Stations were left 
for months without any missionary care. The feeble 
flame seemed almost to go out, yet nothing could 
quench it. The Danforths, the Stoddards, the Wards, 
the Whitings, the Barkers, were added to the forces at 
Gauhati, Nowgong, Sibsagor. After long years of slow, 
uphill, discouraging, unending work, of the kind that 
tests faith and discloses character, a brighter day 
began to dawn for the mission in Assam. It is worthy 
of record that at one time Gauhati was left for nine 
years, from 1858 to 1867, without any resident mis- 
sionary, and again for seven years. 

Opening of the Garo Villages. When the encour- 
agement came, however, it was not so much in the 
mission devoted to the Assamese as in the newer 
enterprises which had turned to the wild hill-people. 
The story of the opening of the Garo villages to the 
gospel of Christ is one of the romances of missions. 
In 1847 the British Government had started a school 
in Goalpara in hope of gaining some influence over 
the wild Garos. There were only ten pupils in the 
school, but two of these boys were destined to be the 



AMONG ANIMISTS IN ASSAM 77 

instruments by whom God would open the work 
among the people. 

A Handicap that was a Blessing. One of these 
boys was named Ramkhe. He had from a child 
longed for education, but only secured the coveted 
opportunity because a broken arm prevented him 
from being useful in the field. The terrible prospect 
of future transmigration of souls, in which all the 
Garos believe, haunted the boy, and he wondered if 
there were not a " spirit better and stronger and wiser 
and greater than Garo demons, and if this spirit could 
not bless him if it so chose. " So he used to pray to 
this unknown God. 

Ramkhe and the Torn Tract. The other boy was 
named Omed, and he and Ramkhe used to talk over 
their spiritual difficulties. After a time they became 
sepoys in the British army, and one day Ramkhe was 
sent to guard an empty mission house which was to 
be prepared for the use of an army officer. While 
sweeping one of the rooms he picked up one of the 
torn fragments of a tract. Now that tract was one of 
a number which an English missionary had scattered 
in great quantities throughout Assam some time be- 
fore this, while making a tour. As Ramkhe read the 
tract he was pricked to the heart. He sought out a 
native Christian who could tell him more of the message 
which he believed to be that of the true gospel, found 
at last in this torn fragment. He told Omed what 
he had found, and both were later baptized by Doctor 
Bronson, February 8, 1863. Soon after this Ramkhe 
was dismissed from the service on account of his 



78 FOLLOWING THE SUNRISE 

crippled arm. Omed also secured release, and he and 
Ramkhe decided to return to their people in the hills 
to carry the good news of Christianity. At this time 
the Garos were living in the wild hill-country, a tract 
about three thousand, six hundred square miles in 
area. The district was wholly composed of sharp, 
ridgy mountains, divided by rough ravines, impassable 
to carts or even ponies, and only to be reached on 
foot. 

Telling Their Own People. The Garos were true 
savages, wild, brave, and cruel, afraid only of the 
evil spirits by whom they believed the mountains to 
be peopled. In a few months seven of the relatives 
of these two men accepted Christ. Ramkhe opened a 
school, while Omed went from village to village, tell- 
ing the story of the gospel. A terrible persecution 
soon gathered against the little body of believers, the 
fury of which drove them from the mountain villages. 
Omed stationed himself by the path where all the hill- 
folk must pass when they came down to market at 
Gauhati. Here he built a hut of grass and lived in it. 
He spoke to all who would stop to hear his message. 
Gradually others followed him, until a little village 
was built up, whose inhabitants were wholly com- 
posed of the persecuted Garo Christians. This village 
they called Rajasimla. Here Doctor Bronson organ- 
ized the first church of forty Garo Christians. Mr. 
and Mrs. Stoddard made the first extended tour through 
these hidden mountain villages, perched in the fast- 
nesses of the Garo Hills. They found wide-spread in- 
fluence of the work of Omed and Ramkhe. The chiefs 



AMONG ANIMISTS IN ASSAM 79 

were friendly, and the people willing to listen to the 
message. By 1869 there were one hundred and forty 
Christians in the Garo Hills. 

Beginning of Schools. From the beginning the 
missionaries found it necessary to emphasize educa- 
tional work. The Garos were ruined by sin. To 
leave them without any training for their leaders 
was to doom them to an evanescent and powerless 
type of Christianity. The government attempts to 
introduce education had failed among these hill- 
tribes. The people were too besottedly ignorant to 
desire or appreciate an education. In the govern- 
ment report of 1881, the chief commissioner of edu- 
cation reported as follows : " It is difficult to convince 
a Garo or a Naga of the advantage of learning. The 
only lever that has been found effective is that of 
religion." 

Proposition by the Government. Experience 
showed that where the government failed in estab- 
lishing secular schools, the missionaries were able, 
little by little, to create in these darkened minds an 
appetite for better things. In 1873 the government 
proposed that if the Baptist mission would prosecute 
the educational work with vigor, and locate a mis- 
sionary in each of the hill-tribes, it would turn over 
the entire educational work to the care of the mis- 
sion, and would liberally support the enterprise. But 
the Baptists of America had neither men nor money 
to take advantage of this offer. It was not until 
1878 that the proposition could be accepted, and the 
normal school for the training of teachers removed 



8o • FOLLOWING THE SUNRISE 

to Tura. The missionaries were left in immediate 
control of all the schools in heathen villages, and had, 
of course, in the Christian villages, full direction of 
the work. Their aim was to get each Christian vil- 
lage to build its own schoolhouse, buy its own school- 
books, and make what contribution it could to the 
salary of the school-teacher. 

Education as an Evangelizing Agency. Dr. E. G. 
Phillips gave a striking testimony to the spiritual 
efficiency of these schools in the paper which he read 
before the Mission Jubilee Conference in Assam. 

Our school work has been an efficient agency in 
evangelization. Our Christian school-teacher is in a 
position to exert a constant influence. Not infre- 
quently the interest awakened by the evangelist has 
been followed by a petition for a Christian school- 
teacher, and around these Christian teachers all of our 
Christian communities, with perhaps one or two ex- 
ceptions, have sprung up. First the pupils are 
brought to Christ, and then the parents and others. 
In 1877, in one day Mr. Mason and a native pastor 
baptized eighty converts, the result with God's bless- 
ing of such school work. . . Nine or ten miles 
from Goalpara a grand work began in 1880. The gos- 
pel had been preached there from the first coming of 
the missionary. In one place a few converts had been 
gathered, but the heart of the people seemed hard. 
But in 1877 a teacher (a native Christian) was sent 
to this village. . . What seemed to be a gospel- 
hardened community became a Christian community. 
In 1880 seventy-eight were baptized, in 1881 fifty- 
eight, and in 1882 thirty. And now in 1886 the church 
supports its own pastor. 



AMONG ANIMISTS IN ASSAM 81 

Again Doctor Phillips says, in speaking of the Boys' 
Training School at Tura : 

I know of none for years who have passed through the 
school unconverted except a few sons of Tura policemen. 
Two hundred and thirty-seven had been in the school 
since it began. Some of them stayed only for a short 
time. Of these two hundred and thirty-seven, I know 
of but fourteen who left school unconverted, and of 
these . . . six were Hindus, leaving only eight Garos. . . 
One hundred and three have engaged in teaching or have 
been employed in some religious work. Of those who 
have not been thus employed, some have been helpers 
in church work. This school is considered, and must 
continue to be considered, a very important part of 
our work. 

The Garo Women. While the educational work for 
boys presented serious difficulties, these were as 
nothing as compared with those which beset the un- 
dertaking to train and educate Garo girls and women. 
To be sure, these Garo women were free. They could 
come and go as they pleased, visit the markets, trade, 
and engage in business. When speaking of the hus- 
band and wife, the woman's name always came first. 
This was no sign of respect, for the Garo men re- 
garded them with deep contempt. A man might beat 
his wife if he chose, and felt disgraced to have a 
woman sit in front of him. The women were beasts 
of burden, digging in the gardens, helping clear the 
jungles, cultivating the fields. And after the day's 
work was over for their husbands, they still had their 
work to do in collecting the fire-wood, bringing the 



82 FOLLOWING THE SUNRISE 

water from the spring, cooking the rice, and attend- 
ing to the primitive housekeeping. 

Difficulties in Starting a Girls' School. It was in 
1874 that Mrs. Keith gathered together the first group 
of shy little wild girls from the Garo Hills. Parents 
regarded the attempt to teach girls to read with 
amused incredulity, and were so unwilling to let their 
daughters come, that the undertaking was given up 
at the end of the year. In 1887 Mrs. Burdette made 
another attempt in Tura. She sent out word for 
Christian girls to be brought in to her to attend 
school, and then sat all day at her window watching 
to see the little procession of parents and daughters 
coming down from the hills. She might as well have 
watched for an airship. Not to be defeated by the 
indifference of the people, she resolved that, if the 
girls would not come to her, she would go to the 
girls. She gathered a group of heathen coolies and 
alone undertook the difficult task of threading the 
deep jungles, and fording the mountain streams, and 
finding her way along the precipitous paths that led 
to the villages in the hills. The journey to the nearest 
Christian village occupied her one week. She then 
went from village to village, visiting fifteen villages 
in her attempt to overcome the prejudices of parents 
so far that they might allow her to take their daugh- 
ters back to the station with her for a term of school- 
ing. She stayed to the meeting of the Association, 
and as a result induced ten girls, mostly orphans, in 
such wretched circumstances that any change was 
welcome, to make the great experiment. At the end 



AMONG ANIMISTS IN ASSAM 83 

of a year all but three returned to their villages, and 
when the time came for school to open in the fall only 
one old student and one new student presented them- 
selves. 

" Mahomet goes to The Mountain." Mrs. Burdette 
decided to go herself and spend a year in one of the 
mountain villages, to see if she could not break down 
the prejudices of the people and secure the foundation 
of a permanent school for girls. Here for a year she 
lived in a little bamboo hut in a Garo village, and 
gathered a village school numbering thirty-eight 
girls, some of whom had come to her from surrounding 
villages. As the result of this heroic treatment she 
had at the beginning of the next season twenty-one 
girls who were willing to go down to the boarding-school 
at Tura. 

The Unselfish Mother-Heart. She tells one touch- 
ing incident which shows that some of these ignorant 
Garo mothers were able to rise to heights of unselfish- 
ness that are not easy for American mothers to at- 
tain. There was one very bright little girl, about 
twelve years old, whose mother was ill, and just as 
the girls were starting away, the child weeping, said 
that she could not leave her mother, that she felt she 
ought to stay and take care of her. To whom the 
sick mother said : " Don't you cry, God will take 
care of me. Go to school and learn all that you 
can. You must not worry. If I die I will go to 
Jesus. Go, and may God be with you." But as they 
were leaving the village the girl's love for her mother 
proved too strong, and she returned to minister to 



84 FOLLOWING THE SUNRISE 

her, and later paid with her own life the penalty for 
her loyal devotion. After all, in America or in the 
Garo Hills, we are all " just folks." 

Work Among Many Tribes. The illustrations of 
work among the Garos are typical of what has oc- 
curred in the missions to the Nagas, Mikirs, and 
other hill-tribes. The limits of the chapter prevent 
the telling of the story in detail. It was true of all 
of them that they were wild people, fierce and blood- 
thirsty, who were believed to be untameable. It has 
been true that the gospel has proved powerful to 
change and uplift in the case of all alike. An intimate 
record of life among the Nagas may be found in Mrs. 
Clark's, " A Corner in India." 

The Schools at Jorhat. One of the most significant 
developments in educational work in Assam has been 
in the schools at Jorhat. Here are the Bible Train- 
ing School, the Middle English High School with 
government recognition, and the Industrial School. 
About one hundred boys, big and little, representing 
many of the tribes and peoples of Assam, comprise 
the pupils. They have four hours of work, four hours 
of lessons, and two hours of study each day. A car- 
penter shop under the direction of a Chinese car- 
penter turns out work that finds ready sale, and helps 
to pay the way of about twenty boys. A printing- 
press, it is hoped, will offer opportunity for self-help 
to others. 

Industrial Training. While it has not been found 
possible to make the industrial work in which all 
share pay all the expenses of the boys, it is felt to be 



AMONG ANIMISTS IN ASSAM 85 

of the utmost value in inculcating a new attitude 
toward labor. The missionaries are planning to sup- 
plement the work which each boy does toward his 
own support by " workships," rather than scholar- 
ships. Meanwhile, the missionaries must undertake 
the long process of educating the parents to permit 
and desire their boys to be educated. Churches, as- 
sociations, and individuals are urged to provide 
" workships " in aid of needy students. In this work 
there is no reason why American supporters should 
not share. The industrial training has the cordial 
approval of the government, to meet whose standards 
it will be necessary to do the work on a scale larger 
than has before been attempted. The very careful 
survey of the missionaries calls for an investment in 
buildings and land of at least fifteen thousand dollars. 
But these schools so equipped may help to transform 
the daily life in Assam. 

Tremendous Obstacles to Overcome. There have 
been many problems in the school work in Assam. 
The difficulties due to the scattered population, the 
dense ignorance and poverty of the people, the diffi- 
culty in securing competent teachers, have continually 
complicated the situation. In 1906 the government 
made the experiment of taking back into its own 
care fourteen of the village schools in the Naga Hills 
which had been entrusted to the missionaries. But 
the experiment did not prove successful, and by 1911 
almost all of them were closed. The schools were 
again turned over to the mission to be reopened and 
built up. There are now two hundred and fifteen 



86 FOLLOWING THE SUNRISE 

village schools, the springs of life hidden in the hills. 
Nothing but superb courage and determination which 
cannot be broken, has held the missionaries true to 
their tasks. The results, however, are beginning to 
be seen. The situation grows more encouraging every 
year. 

Good Stuff in the Mountain People. If the work 
can only be supported on any adequate basis of num- 
bers or equipment, there is no reason why great re- 
sults for Christianity and for civilization may not be 
accomplished among these brave and hardy moun- 
taineers. The people are dirty and ignorant and de- 
graded, but they have good stuff in them. The pic- 
ture shown on this page of the contrast between the 
ordinary wild Garo of the village and the trained col- 
lege student, is the record of a transformation that is 
little short of miraculous. A good test of the value 
of the schools was afforded in taking the govern- 
ment census in 1910. There were one hundred 
enumerators and fifteen supervisors appointed to take 
the census among the Nagas, and every one of them 
was chosen from those who had been educated in the 
mission schools. 

Improvement Among the Women. Even on the 
women the results are beginning to tell. Although the 
villagers still retain to a good degree their prejudices 
against the girls, the number of girls in the schools 
steadily increases, until they are about one-fourth as 
numerous as the boys. Two of the graduates of the 
school have recently taken training in Calcutta in 
midwifery, and one of them on her return has secured 



AMONG ANIMISTS IN ASSAM 87 

a government position in a hospital. One Naga 
trained in the school at Impur has also become a 
physician to his people. Only a beginning has been 
made in reaching the hill-people. Numberless vil- 
lages and many tribes are yet untouched. The way 
into Burma, into Siam, or into Tibet is bridged by 
these tribes who form the links between the popula- 
tion of these countries and that of Assam ; and it is 
quite possible that a chain of missions might be estab- 
lished which would bring the missionaries face to 
face with the work in the other countries. 

Boarding-School at Nowgong. One of the most 
interesting recent developments among girls' schools 
has been the one at Nowgong in which the distinct 
purpose is to reach the upper-class Assamese girls, 
both Hindu and Mohammedan. If Assam is to be- 
come Christian we must reach these influential classes 
with the gospel. The school has had very rapid 
growth and now numbers one hundred and ninety 
pupils, ranging all the way from the kindergarten and 
primary to the normal department. The new normal 
department is regarded by the government with great 
favor. At the time of the last inspection Miss Doe 
took her courage in both hands and asked for a piano. 
The inspector graciously granted one thousand 
rupees. " I accepted it with thanks," wrote Miss 
Doe, " and felt as natural as if I were accustomed 
to having pianos tossed to me every day/' 

Tribute of a Hindu Official. A beautiful tribute 
was recently paid to the quality of the work done by 
these missionaries in Nowgong. It is hard for on$ 



88 FOLLOWING THE SUNRISE 

not fully acquainted with the exclusiveness and isola- 
tion of caste to realize how surprising and significant 
the incident was. The wife of a government official 
had died. The man was a Brahman, one of the 
priestly twice-born caste who claim almost divine 
honors from the common people. But this man sent 
to ask if our Christian school would receive and care 
for his motherless infant until it was three or four 
years old. He knew of the kindergarten, of the clean- 
liness, the tender care of the Christian school, and 
was willing to violate his caste rules and brave the 
deepest prejudices of his nation in order to save the 
child's life. People have not yet recovered from the 
surprise. The incident is an eloquent evidence of the 
deep impression made on the non-Christian com- 
munity. 

A Noble Heritage. The Baptists of America have 
a rich heritage in the story of missions in Assam. 
There is no other body of Christians in Assam who 
have a work in any way comparable to that which 
has been effected by the devoted heroism of our pioneer 
missionaries. Through a series of misfortunes which 
has threatened at times to overwhelm the mission, 
the work has been steadily prosecuted. Names dear 
to every Baptist are found on the roll of the workers. 
As an illustration, consider the life of Dr. Miles Bron- 
son. For thirty years he and his heroic and saintly 
wife journeyed among the hills and valleys of Assam. 
It was he who founded the orphanage in Gauhati 
which for years was the very heart of the mission. 
When it was given up in 1854, on the recommenda- 



AMONG ANIMISTS IN ASSAM 89 

tion of a deputation sent out from headquarters, it 
was in opposition to the unanimous judgment of the 
missionaries, as the strongest Christian leaders in 
Assam were men who had been trained in that early 
orphanage and under the inspiration and care of Miles 
Bronson. One of the most beautiful deeds in his life 
was his unquestioning and unhesitating acceptance 
of an order from the Board which took him into a 
difficult and untried field, when he had been worn 
out with nearly forty years of work. Like the good 
soldier that he was, he undertook the task, and laid 
down his life in its doing. " I believe the Sahib loved 
the Assamese better than his own folks/' said one of 
the Garo Christians. 

Tribute to Women Missionaries. Time would fail 
us to tell of the Wards, the Whitings, the Masons, the 
Phillips, the Moores, the Burdettes, the Stoddards, 
and the Clarks, men and women of whom the world 
is not worthy. But it is not unfitting to pay special 
tribute to the heroism of the women who helped to 
carry on the work in this most difficult field. For 
long months and years they have had to live in iso- 
lated stations with no other European within a week's 
journey. Sometimes during the absence of their hus- 
bands, who were touring the district, they and their 
children have been left absolutely alone in the mis- 
sion station. They have endured loneliness, hunger, 
and racking attacks of fever. One by one the diffi- 
culties of the climate have broken them, but never 
once discouraged them. Their heart has ever been 
given to the winning of dark Assam for Christ. 



90 FOLLOWING THE SUNRISE 

The Great Revival. The most striking feature in 
the work in Assam during recent years was the great 
revival in Nowgong in 1906. Early in 1905 a few 
Christians had begun to pray for the outpouring of 
the Spirit on their work, and in May a circular letter 
was sent to all the stations in Assam asking that 
special meetings for prayer be held, and from June 
to October meetings were held every night in most 
of the stations. These meetings were small, not more 
than ten or twenty people present, but were charac- 
terized by earnest prayer for the outpouring of the 
Holy Spirit. During this time the majority of the 
Christian people remained apparently untouched. In 
the boarding-school at Nowgong began the awakening 
which led to the great revival. It was in Novem- 
ber of 1906 that a great spirit of prayer and consecra- 
tion was evident among the girls of the school. After 
Sunday-school and the usual preaching service, they 
had a little prayer-meeting, beginning at two o'clock 
in the afternoon. A little girl of eight or nine years 
had offered a prayer of deep penitence, pouring out 
her childish heart to God in a sincere petition for 
forgiveness. " The effect upon the listeners/' said 
Mr. Moore, " was contagious. As if by common im- 
pulse the whole congregation kneeled and began to 
pray. Strong and matter-of-fact men seemed held 
by an irresistible power. The meeting went on until 
after eight o'clock in the evening, and closed in a 
great mood of joy and thanksgiving. Meetings of 
similar power have been held since, but no two of 
them alike. Human leadership has been conspicu- 



AMONG ANIMISTS IN ASSAM 91 

ously absent. The Holy Spirit manifested his power 
in ways and times quite unforeseen and unexpected. ,, 
As one reads the accounts of the intense spiritual 
experiences through which the Christian churches of 
Assam passed, one is reminded of the revival seasons 
in the early history of our country when whole com- 
munities were transformed by the power of God. 
The reports of the missionaries show that the effects 
of the revival have been seen in permanent uplift in 
the lives of many Christians. Boys and girls now in 
school have been fitted to enter into a new life of 
power and freedom in Christ which shall prepare 
them to be the leaders and inspirers of their people 
in the coming generation. 

An Association in the Hills. To see what the gos- 
pel has done in Assam one needs to go back from 
the cities away from the big institutions to the hill 
villages, to attend an annual association. At the 
village of Derek, for example, the central unit of 
churches numbering seven hundred and thirty-nine 
members, an association meeting was recently held. 
Some members traveled five days' journey to be 
present. Every church but one sent a letter, and that 
church was a week's journey distant. While the 
guests paid for their food at the association, the en- 
tertaining church had to work hard to make prepara- 
tion. The women pounded and cleaned nearly two 
and one-half tons of rice, besides helping to gather 
fire-wood and plaintain leaves to serve as dishes. The 
men removed two walls from the bamboo chapel and 
built a large temporary addition, and made thatch 



92 FOLLOWING THE SUNRISE 

sheds for all their guests. On Sunday morning 1,276 
people were present. Over four hundred women 
gathered at the women's session on Sunday afternoon. 
An excellent Sunday-school session was held, and 
many promised to go back home to do better work 
in their Sunday-schools. In such gatherings as these 
one can see the gospel seed taking root. A Garo 
chief recently sent in a contribution for schools, say- 
ing : " Let not one be given up for lack of funds." 

Strong Meat for Babes. Into the lives of these 
primitive people is being carried the greatest trans- 
forming power known to man, the free gospel of the 
grace of God. The very primer in which the child 
learns to read in the Welsh mission among the 
Khassia hills is charged with revolutionary ideas, con- 
ceptions foreign to him and to his fathers. " I sin, 
he sins, you sin. All sin is wicked. Do not sin any 
more," reads the first lesson. " Strong meat for 
babes," you say? Yes, in the hideous heathenism of 
Assam they need strong meat, if they are to become 
strong men. The books prove themselves valuable 
by a generation of clean, virile, ambitious boys and 
girls who are growing up in the Garo and Naga Hills. 



AMONG ANIMISTS IN ASSAM 93 



Facts About Assam 

Missionaries 64 

Native workers 378 

Churches 122 

Membership 12,057 

Baptisms 1,134 

Sunday-school pupils 7,164 

Percentage of increase (1912-1913) 9 

Village schools 215 

Pupils 4,614 

Average cost of village schools $25.00 

Contributions of Native Christians $4,392 

Garo Christians number 6,636, more than half the whole 
number. 

Naga Christians number 1,614. Among immigrant peoples 
Christians number 3,456. 

At present the only other missionary society doing extensive 
work in Assam is the Welsh Calvinistic Methodists, whose 
work lies in the Khassia hills. Their communicants are, per- 
haps, about as numerous as are fhe Baptists. 



Baptist Educational Institutions in Assam 

Garo Training School, Tura, Assam. Rev. W. C. Mason, 
principal. 

The source of supply for Christian Garo teachers and preach- 
ers. Self-support is secured in part by a cotton-ginning 
plant. The attendance yearly is over 200. 

Jorhat Bible School, Jorhat, Assam. Rev. S. A. D. Boggs, prin- 
cipal; Rev, C. H. Tilden. 



94 FOLLOWING THE SUNRISE 

It was not until 1906 that a school was opened for the very 
important task of training Christian workers speaking the 
Assamese language. Beginning in a small way, its numbers 
have grown to over one hundred. The industrial department is 
strong. 

Bibliography 

Brown, Whole World Kin: A Pioneer Experience of Nathan 
Brown Among Remote Tribes, pp. 109-436. Philadelphia, 
Hubbard, 1890. 

Clark, A Comer in India. Philadelphia, American Baptist Pub- 
lication Society. 

Gunn, In a Far Country. Philadelphia, American Baptist Publi- 
cation Society, 191 1. 

A biography of Miles Bronson, D. D., missionary to Assam, 
1836-1879. 

Missions in Assam. Boston, American Baptist Foreign Mission 
Society, 1909. 

Merriam, History of American Baptist Missions. Chap. XIII. 
Philadelphia, American Baptist Publication Society, 1913. 



INDIA, THE RUDDER OF ASIA 



CHAPTER IV 
INDIA, THE RUDDER OF ASIA 

A. THE LONE STAR MISSION — SOUTH INDIA 

Telugu Land. The Telugu country is located in 
southern India, between the land of the Tamils on 
the south and Bengal on the north. It is not a recog- 
nized political division, but comprises a strip of 
country about six hundred miles long and from three 
to four hundred miles wide, stretching along the shore 
of the Indian Ocean. In it are included portions of 
the Madras presidency and the independent state of 
Hyderabad — called also the Deccan — ruled over by a 
Moslem prince, the Nizam of Hyderabad. The land 
is for the most part level, with one range of moun- 
tains running north and south called the Eastern 
Ghats. The country is exceedingly populous. The 
Telugu people proper number about seventeen mil- 
lions, and in addition to these there are in the same 
territory Moslem and Tamil people, and scattered 
Bengali. 

Establishment of a Mission. It was in 1835 that 
the attention of American Baptists was called to the 
Telugu field by Amos Sutton, one of the English Baptist 
missionaries living to the north of the Telugu country 
in Orissa. Only one agency, the London Missionary 
Society, he said, was working in this large field. This 
g 97 



98 FOLLOWING THE SUNRISE 

society had sent in two missionaries who had ac- 
quired a knowledge of the language, prepared and 
published a revised edition of the New Testament, 
based probably on the translation of Carey, and had 
established Sunday-schools and a girls' boarding- 
school, and had built the first Christian chapel among 
the Telugu people. It was resolved by the American 
Baptists to send out Rev. Samuel F. Day to open a 
mission in this very large and populous district; as 
it was evident that the London Missionary Society 
was touching only the edge of the field. For three 
years, while studying the language, the Days were 
located in Madras, a Tamil city with a large Telugu 
population. During repeated and extensive tours 
throughout the country, Mr. Day found that there 
were within a distance of four hundred miles at least 
ten million Telugu people without a resident mis- 
sionary. It was his conviction that as he had been sent 
out to the Telugus he ought to be in the heart of the 
Telugu country, and he therefore decided to move to 
Nellore. 

Station in Nellore Located. In order to cover the 
one hundred and eight miles between Madras and 
Nellore, it was necessary in those days to take a slow 
and wearying journey by native boat and bullock- 
cart. Mr. Day reached Nellore in 1840, and bought 
eight acres of land for a mission compound. On this 
he built a solid and substantial bungalow, in firm 
faith that he was founding something that was going 
to last. It took robust faith to believe such a thing, 
for the mission seemed a sickly plant. The people 



INDIA, THE RUDDER OF ASIA 99 

were indifferent and suspicious, when not actually 
hostile, and listeners were few and converts fewer. 
In 1841 the first convert was baptized, and the church 
of eight members, four of them missionaries, was 
organized in 1844. The health of the little missionary- 
group was seriously impaired. In five years the Van 
Deusens were invalided home, and the Days were 
left alone. Mr. Day wrote touching appeals to the 
board begging for reenforcements, without result. In 
1846 his own health was so alarmingly impaired that 
his physicians ordered an immediate return to 
America. But he went reluctantly. 

The thought of leaving for our native land gives little 
satisfaction. Oh, the mission we leave, the little church, 
the few inquirers, the schools, the heathen, yes, the hun- 
dred thousand heathen immediately in our vicinity, the 
million in the district, the ten millions in our mission field ; 
what will become of them? 

First Proposal to Abandon the Mission. When Mr. 
Day reached home he found the executive committee 
of the Missionary Union, infected by the lack of faith 
and missionary zeal of the churches of that period, 
seriously discussing the giving up of the mission. His 
determined and manly protest turned the scale, and 
it was decided to wait and see the outcome. When 
the ten years of fruitless effort were contrasted with 
the results in Burma, it was felt by many that it 
would be wise to close up the mission in Nellore and 
transfer the missionaries to Burma. Mr. Judson, who 
was home on a furlough at that time, said : " I would 



ioo FOLLOWING THE SUNRISE 

cheerfully, at my age, cross the Bay of Bengal and 
learn a new language rather than by the lift of my 
hand vote for the abandonment of this work." 

The Jewetts Reenforce the Mission. The committee 
left the matter without final decision, and meanwhile 
Lyman Jewett and his wife volunteered to go to Nellore. 
Mr. Day recovered his health and was longing to go back. 
The Board of Managers discussed the question of con- 
tinuing the mission, and finally agreed to put over 
the decision until the annual meeting at Troy, New 
York. Rev. William R. Williams, chairman of the 
committee to report on the continuance or discon- 
tinuance of the mission, wrote a powerful report in 
favor of retaining the mission. After the reading of 
this report it was voted to instruct the committee to 
reenforce the mission. Leaving his wife, who was 
not yet so recovered that she could return, Mr. Day 
and the Jewetts sailed from Boston in the " Bowditch," 
in October, 1848, and arrived in Nellore in April, 
1849. Who can measure the discomforts of the voy- 
age in the tiny sailing-vessels of those days, with 
poor food, and insufficient supply of water, and 
cramped quarters? It took real heroism to endure 
the perils of the journeys, but these missionary 
pioneers were not thinking of discomforts. We are 
told that the captain and many seamen were con- 
verted by the efforts of the missionaries during the 
long voyage. 

Discouraging Condition in Nellore. If the brethren 
of America had known what had happened in Nellore, 
it is to be feared that not even the eloquence of Doc- 



INDIA, THE RUDDER OF ASIA 101 

tor Williams could have induced them to vote to 
continue the mission. Mr. Day had left the schools 
and little church in charge of two Eurasian Christian 
teachers who, as soon as he was gone, " ran down " 
in alarming fashion. They disbanded the schools, 
scattered the church, and made the mission bungalow 
the scene of debauchery and shame. In a letter to 
his wife, written just after his arrival in Nellore, Mr. 
Day says: 

I have seen our once happy home and walked 
through the empty, desolate rooms, now how changed. 
. . The assistants have turned aside from follow- 
ing the Lord, and by their wickedness the name of 
God is every day blasphemed among the heathen in 
Nellore. Thus we find things. But could we have 
expected better? Was it right for the mission to be 
neglected thus long by the churches in America? 
. . . My heart is at times troubled and cast down 
because of the fewness of missionary laborers here, 
and the little success in the way of conversions at- 
tending the labors of that few, but my faith has not 
failed a moment since my return. Great things ere 
long will appear, and many will turn to the Lord among 
the Telugus ere many years pass. 

Early Trophies of the Faith. The noble Jewetts 
were there to put their mighty faith under the fainting 
little mission. They soon gained remarkable com- 
mand of the language and began touring among the 
villages. Mrs. Jewett gathered a girls' boarding- 
school, sometimes numbering only two or three girls. 
One of these, however, was Julia of Nellore, a splen- 
did trophy of the work. Mr. Day had opened other 



102 FOLLOWING THE SUNRISE 

schools in which two hundred and seventy boys were 
gathered, when in 1850 there came an order from 
Boston to close all the schools. 

Schools Ordered Closed. This order was in re- 
sponse to a wide-spread belief among Christians of 
that day that schools were not really missionary 
work; that sacred funds such as missionary money 
were not to be spent except to " save souls. " This 
feeling sprang from a failure to see that the Great 
Commission included teaching as well as preaching, 
and from a false idea which divided the interests and 
tasks of life into the sacred and the secular. This 
mistaken notion had tragic results in many fields in 
the retarding and weakening of the Baptist native 
church. The order was a crushing blow to Mr. Day 
and the Jewetts. Mr. Day wrote to his wife : 

Yesterday, September 30, 1850, we dismissed nine 
schoolmasters and two hundred and seventy children, 
all of whom were daily occupied as the chief part of 
their duty in reading and committing to memory the 
precious word of God in their own tongue. 

The Deputation of 1853. As if the abandonment 
of the schools was not a sufficient discouragement, 
along came a missionary deputation in 1853 to look 
over the field and report. There was not much to 
show. In fact, for the first twenty-five years of the 
Telugu Mission, it was one continuous, wide-spread 
sowing, and very little reaping. The missionaries, 
poor things, thought they could see signs of promise, 
now and then, as they talked with earnest inquirers. 



INDIA, THE RUDDER OF ASIA 103 

But the deputation saw nothing but the bare, brown 
fields, for they had planted no seeds of faith or hope. 
So, on their return home, like the spies sent into the 
promised land, they told only of the giants in that 
land; and there were no Calebs or Joshuas among 
them to bring back a cluster of the grapes of Eshcol. 
At the very next annual meeting up bobbed the ques- 
tion of abandoning the mission. Why not? It was 
always more or less painful to part Baptists from their 
money for missionary purposes, and to do it for a 
forlorn and fruitless field, was too unpleasant to con- 
template. Why all this waste ; this gift of substance 
poured out on feet that seemed to heed it not? 

The Lone Star. A proposition was made that a 
letter be written to Doctor Jewett requesting him to 
close up the mission and move to Burma. Dr. Ed- 
ward Bright, then corresponding secretary, said: 
" Who will write that letter, and who will write that 
letter?" In the evening, during the public discus- 
sion, one speaker pointed to the map where the mis- 
sion stations were marked by stars, and called Nellore 
" the lone star mission." The phrase caught the at- 
tention of Rev. S. F. Smith, the beloved author of 
" My Country ! 'Tis of Thee," and " The Morning Light 
is Breaking." Before he slept that night he wrote the 
lines beginning: 

Shine on, "Lone Star," thy radiance bright 
Shall spread o'er all the eastern sky; 

Morn breaks apace from gloom and night ; 
Shine on, and bless the pilgrim's eye. 



104 FOLLOWING THE SUNRISE 

Shine on, " Lone Star," thy radiance bright 
The light that gleams with dubious ray ; 

The lonely star of Bethlehem 

Led on a bright and glorious day.* 

When the poem was read the next day it went 
straight to the heart of the delegates; and it was 
unanimously voted to continue and reenforce the 
mission. Meanwhile things were not very much 
brighter in Nellore. Mr. Day's health had been 
broken down, and he was obliged to return home, 
never again to return. When Mr. Jewett learned 
that it had been proposed to remove him to Burma, 
and how narrowly the peril had been averted, he said : 
" I would rather labor on here as long as I live, than 
to be torn up by the roots and transplanted. Faith 
and my own conscience tell me that I am not labor- 
ing in vain in the Lord." 

A Sunrise Prayer-Meeting. During the latter 
months of the year 1853, the Jewetts and three 
helpers, among them Julia of Nellore and Christian 
Nursu, made a long evangelistic tour as far as Guntur 
to the north, and on their return reached Ongole at 
about Christmas time. After they had spent the 
week in street preaching, it was decided to hold a 
sunrise prayer-meeting on a bare and stony hill over- 
looking the town. From every side of its scrubby 
eminence there was a prospect over the wide, populous 
plain, twinkling like the Milky Way with thick-set 

*The complete poem can be had from the headquarters of 
either of the missionary societies, printed in attractive leaflet 



INDIA, THE RUDDER OF ASIA 105 

villages, and in that thronging plain there was not 
one professed Christian. Very early in the morning, 
as it began to dawn toward the first day of the year, 
the little group of Christians climbed the hill to be 
alone with God. There was nothing dramatic in their 
action, no consciousness on their part of taking part 
in a historic scene. They were a little obscure band, 
quite naturally and simply obeying the desire of their 
own hearts for an hour of communion and dedication. 
But generations yet unborn will visit that sacred hill, 
where in faith God's children, in the name of Christ, 
took possession of the land of the Telugus. 

The story of what happened at that sunrise prayer- 
meeting is best told by the Bible-woman, Julia of Nellore : 

First we sang a hymn and Father Jewett prayed. 
Then Christian Nursu prayed. Then Father read a 
portion of Isaiah, fifty-second chapter. " How beauti- 
ful upon the mountains are the feet of him that 
bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace." Then 
Mother Jewett prayed, then I prayed, and then Ruth 
prayed. After we had all prayed, Father Jewett stood 
up and stretching out his hand, said : " Do you see 
that rising piece of ground yonder, all covered over 
with prickly-pear? Would you not like that spot for 
our mission bungalow and all this land to become 
Christian? Well, that day will come/' Then we all 
spoke our minds, and just as the meeting closed, the 
sun rose. It seemed as if the Holy Spirit had lifted 
us above the world, and our hearts were filled with 
thanksgiving to the Lord. 

Doctor Jewett on Retrenchment. Faith was not 
to be fulfilled in sight, however, for weary years. 



106 FOLLOWING THE SUNRISE 

Extensive touring was done by the Jewetts and the Doug- 
lasses, who joined the mission in 1855, and a few 
choice first-fruits were gathered, among them Kana- 
kiah, the first ordained pastor, who later married Julia 
of Nellore, and Lydia, a caste woman, whom Doctor 
Smith called " Anna, the Prophetess." The scanty 
results lowered the subnormal temperature of the 
church at home, and in 1856 the executive committee 
wrote, fearing that " retrenchments " would be neces- 
sary. Doctor Jewett's reply ought to be committed 
to memory by every Christian. 

Oh, Father, forgive the churches. To rob God's 
treasury is not to distress missionaries primarily, but 
it is a robbery of souls, a shutting away the gift of 
eternal life. The missionary must part with what he 
loves far more than any earthly boon, yet Christians 
at home refuse the help they could so easily give. 
The very idea of retrenchment is hostile to everything 
that deserves the name of missionary. Satan says, 
" stop giving/' Jesus says, " Go ye into all the world 
and preach the gospel. " 

Second Proposal to Abandon the Mission. In 1862, 
after thirteen years of apparently fruitless labor, Doc- 
tor Jewett's health gave way, and he and his family 
were obliged to return to America. It was provi- 
dential that he had to return, for Mr. Little Faith 
and Brother Much Afraid were again raising their 
voices in the home field, and bringing up the peren- 
nial question of abandoning the Lone Star Mission. 
Worldly Wisdom had a good case too. He might 
pertinently point out that they had yielded to the 



INDIA, THE RUDDER OF ASIA 107 

sentimentalists twice ; that once the Convention had 
actually been stampeded by a poem. Was it not 
quite evident, after twenty-five years of vain endeavor, 
that the soil about Nellore was too hard or too thin 
for the gospel to take root? Why not put good Bap- 
tist money where it would count for something, and 
not waste money and break down valuable lives in 
a vain endeavor? 

Doctor Jewett Saves the Day. The resolution came 
up at the annual meeting in Providence in 1862, and 
would undoubtedly have passed, such was the senti- 
ment, but for the plea of the corresponding secretary, 
Doctor Warren, that final action be deferred until 
after the arrival of Doctor Jewett, now on the sea. 
This was reluctantly agreed to. When Doctor Jewett 
came later before the Executive Committee, his mag- 
nificent faith and assured conviction of ultimate suc- 
cess could not be resisted. He said he had strong 
faith that God had much people among the Telugus, 
and if the society declined to aid him, he should go 
back alone, there to live and die. Such faith won 
the day. It always does. " Great is thy faith ; be 
it unto thee even as thou wilt " ; " Little is thy faith ; 
be it unto thee even as thou wilt," are obverse sides 
of the same shield. 

Doctor Clough Enters the Field. When the Jewetts 
returned they took with them for the Nellore field 
a man of might, John E. Clough, as rugged, strong, 
and uncompromising as is the sound of his name. 
The legend goes that the Executive Committee was 
not quite sure of his qualifications for the place. He 



108 FOLLOWING THE SUNRISE 

seemed a bit too rugged and unfinished. But when 
one of the members asked him, so goes the story, 
what he would do if they thought best not to send 
him, he replied that he would go anyway, if he had 
to work his passage. So he had his way, and sailed 
from Boston, November 30, 1864. 

Awakening Among the Outcastes. As, after some 
long, cold winter, one wakes some morning to breathe 
the breath of spring, mysterious, unmistakable, though 
bluebirds and apple blossoms are weeks away, so 
the returned missionaries found evidence that the 
seed long sown in tears was soon to spring in joy. 
The missionaries, in faith that reenforcements would 
be needed, sent urgent appeals home for two more 
men. When the break on the field came, however, 
it was not in the direction in which it had been ex- 
pected or even desired. The outcastes began to turn 
to God! Without the pale of Hinduism, shut out 
from its ritual, denied the ministry of its priests and 
the consolations of its religion, are the multitudes 
of the outcastes of India, " the untouchables/' re- 
garded by all the Hindu w^orld as almost less than 
human. The law of Manu had said regarding these 
Pariahs or outcastes : " Their abode must be out of 
town. Their clothes must be the mantles of the dead. 
Let no man hold any intercourse with them." They 
were not allowed to draw water from the village wells 
frequented by the caste people, lest their shadows 
should pollute them. They were forced to yield the 
street to the caste people, and in some sections of the 
country where caste prejudice was strongest, the 



INDIA, THE RUDDER OF ASIA 109 

women of the outcastes were not allowed to wear any 
clothing on the upper part of the body. Born in filth, 
reared in filth, dying in filth, the Madigas, Malas, and 
Pariahs passed their wretched lives. They were made 
up of the weavers, cobblers, tanners, fishermen, 
sweepers, and farm laborers. Even among these poor 
people caste held sway. Outcastes whose income was 
only four dollars a month would hire the family wash- 
ing done ; for so disgraceful was the dhobis, or wash- 
erman's, work considered that even the sweepers 
would not eat with him nor have any social intercourse. 
In all India there are about fifty millions of these hope- 
less folk, sometimes spoken of by high-sounding 
euphemism as the " depressed classes/' 

The First Madiga Convert. Now it was the pur- 
pose of God to show the triumphs of his grace on 
these feeblest, most persecuted, most ignorant, hope- 
less, and unlovely people in all India. The first con- 
vert among these outcastes came while Doctor Clough 
was on a visit to Ongole in the year 1866. He was 
named Periah, one of the Madigas. Although unable 
to read a word, he yet gave such convincing evidence of 
his grasp of the saving truths of Christianity that, 
without question, he and his wife were baptized one 
day, at set of sun. Glowing with joy, he began to 
go among the outcastes, from palem to palem. Three 
native preachers from Nellore agreed to join him, 
and were amazed at his burning zeal. Long before 
daybreak he would have them on the way. In the 
hottest weather he went with them, carrying a huge 
jar of buttermilk on his head, so that the preachers 



no FOLLOWING THE SUNRISE 

might drink when thirsty. When the preachers re- 
turned to Nellore, like the first disciples, they mar- 
veled, for two hundred outcastes were believing in 
Christ. 

Providential that the Outcastes Came First. In no 
way is the guiding hand of God more clearly seen 
than in gathering his church in India first from the 
outcastes. Not because they are the best material. 
They are the worst, perhaps. Nor because they are 
the most influential; they are least. But if, after 
the plans and efforts of man, the missionaries had 
succeeded in building up a church of caste people, 
so terrible is the bondage of caste in India that it 
would never have been possible to receive into the 
same church the outcaste converts. This was illus- 
trated in the early days in Ongole. A number of 
caste people had come asking baptism, but when they 
heard of the Madigas who had been baptized in 
Periah's village, they objected to being in the same 
church with them. Doctor Clough told them that these 
outcastes were forty miles away, and could not hurt 
them. They seemed pacified. But just then twelve 
men, converts from an outcaste village, came asking 
baptism. The missionary almost hoped that they 
might fail in the examination, for to admit them 
seemed the ruination of the promising beginning 
among the caste people. But the outcastes witnessed 
a good confession. Prudence said, " Do not throw 
over these people of influence for these despised 
Madigas." What did Duty say? In their dilemma, 
Doctor and Mrs. Clough went apart to their rooms to 



INDIA, THE RUDDER OF ASIA in 

ask counsel of God. Each opened to the same passage 
of Scripture, 1 Corinthians 1 : 26-29 : " For you see 
your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men 
after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are 
called ; but God hath chosen the foolish things of 
the world to confound the wise ; and God hath chosen 
the weak things of the world to confound the things 
w T hich are mighty; and base things of the world, and 
things which are despised hath God chosen, yea, and 
things which are not, to bring to naught the things 
that are : that no flesh should glory in his presence." 
As they came from prayer each told the other God's 
answer. There was no further question. The out- 
castes were baptized. The caste people turned away, 
saying: "If these are received, we cannot enter your 
church." 

Days of Growth. The years between 1867 and 1876 
were filled with hope and progress. New recruits 
joined the mission staff. Doctor and Mrs. Downie 
came in 1873, and Rev. R. R. Williams was assigned 
to the theological seminary in Ramapatnam. The 
same year Mr. Campbell became the pioneer in the 
Deccan. The Timpanys and McLaurins, after excel- 
lent service in Ongole, later founded the Canadian 
Baptist Telugu mission at Cocanada and Akidu, 
farther north. The newly organized Woman's For- 
eign Missionary Society of the West sent out in 1872 
Miss Lavinia Peabody, the first unmarried woman 
to join the mission. She collected the pupils for a 
girls' school in Ramapatnam. " I shall begin my 
school if I have to gather my pupils under a banyan 



ii2 FOLLOWING THE SUNRISE 

tree," she wrote. In 1874 Doctor Clough visited 
America, stirred up some of the churches, and inci- 
dentally raised fifty thousand dollars to endow the 
theological seminary at Ramapatnam. Then sud- 
denly all the baptizing, the teaching, the preaching, 
the touring, and the organizing of schools was broken 
off by a terrible calamity, the great famine of 1876 to 
1878. 

The Great Famine. This was one of the most ter- 
rible in the long list of Indian famines, affecting as 
it did a territory in which lived fifty-eight millions 
of the people. The northeast monsoon, the wind that 
brings the rainy season, failed, then the southeast 
monsoon. Green things burned from the face of the 
earth. Grain merchants began to hoard their grain. 
Panic seized the people. The cattle died, the streams 
dried up; then came pestilence, starvation, death. 
The mission compounds were thronged with gaunt, 
starving creatures, begging for food. The ears were 
filled with the wailing cries of children, the eyes 
haunted with the sight of starving men. The government 
began relief work by digging canals and building rail- 
ways, and established great famine camps. Mission- 
aries gave themselves up to relieving the sufferers, 
by means of funds sent from America. Doctor Clough 
took a contract to cut four miles of canal; and on 
this he set the starving Christians in Ongole at work. 
Said the British engineer in charge, " Of the thirty- 
five miles built under my direction, your portion is 
the best." Missionaries in various districts were made 
agents for the distribution of the great Mansion 




OXCOLE HIGH SCHOOL FOR BOYS 





I ii 9" 



— »ft JiikiiiiiiBwaiiiiiiMitrti 



KAMAPATXAM THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY 



INDIA, THE RUDDER OF ASIA 113 

House Fund, collected in England for the relief of 
the famine sufferers. 

Famine Orphans Saved. Day-nurseries and or- 
phanages were opened. Mrs. Downie, in Nellore, fed 
four hundred of the children for seven months, at a 
per capita cost of two cents a day. She made the 
children thrive too. Many of the orphans rescued 
in these days of famine became most valued leaders 
in the Christian community later on. One Bible- 
woman now working was sold. by her mother in 1876 
for four annas (eight cents), and later rescued by the 
missionaries. The story is told of another Christian 
worker, that during one of the Indian famines, her 
parents, having no food, buried the tiny child alive 
in order to get rid of her cries. She worked her head 
out of the loose dirt, and was seen and rescued by a 
policeman who brought her to one of the Christian 
orphanages. Here she was kept and educated, and 
when grown married to a native pastor. She reared 
a family of twelve children, and became herself one 
of the most influential women in the Christian com- 
munity. 

The Great Ingathering. After the famine came a 
great ingathering. While they worked on the canal, 
the Christian pastors and teachers had many oppor- 
tunities, in the intervals of the work, to speak of the 
Christian faith to the thousands of workers to whom 
the canal furnished means of livelihood. The spectacle 
of Christians giving work alike to all, with no dis- 
crimination in regard to caste, and with equal solici- 
tude for the humble and the educated, made a pro- 

H 



H4 FOLLOWING THE SUNRISE 

found impression upon the people. It was new to 
them to see the religious leaders and teachers giving 
themselves to the service of humanity. Their whole 
idea of religious leaders, gained through their own, 
the Brahmans, had been of those who accepted wor- 
ship from them, but gave no ministry to them in re- 
turn. For fifteen months all applicants for baptism 
were refused. Not until after all work was completed, 
and there could be no longer any financial motive 
leading the people to enroll themselves as Christians, 
were any candidates for baptism examined or re- 
ceived. But it was impossible longer to refuse the 
people. They could not be kept away. In Ongole, 
from the middle of June to the end of December, 
1878, nine thousand, six hundred and six were bap- 
tized, making Ongole the largest Baptist church in 
the world, with a membership of over twelve thou- 
sand. On the third of July two thousand, two hun- 
dred and twenty-two were baptized by six native pas- 
tors. When the missionaries urged caution and de- 
lay, and tried to send the people back to their vil- 
lages, the multitude, one and all, said to their leading 
men and preachers : u We do not want any money. 
We will not ask you for any, either directly or in- 
directly, now or hereafter. As we have lived thus 
far by our work, by the blisters on our hands we can 
prove this to you, so we will continue to live, or if 
we die we shall die, but we want you to baptize us." 
Within ten years no fewer than twenty-five thousand 
converts were baptized on the Telugu field, most of 
them from the outcastes. Such an ingathering from 



INDIA, THE RUDDER OF ASIA 115 

such a class brought with it inevitably many serious 
problems. The people were bankrupt financially, 
mentally, and spiritually. The transformation 
wrought in two generations is an evidence of the 
power of the gospel to uplift and transform. 

Work Begun in the Deccan. The year before the 
great famine began, the field of missionary operations 
had been extended into the independent state of Hy- 
derabad. This territory lying to the north of the 
Madras presidency contained some eleven million 
people, a large proportion of them speaking Telugu. 
The stations in this territory are Secunderabad, 
Hanumakonda, Palmur, Nalgonda, Sooriapett, and 
Jangaon. 

First Problem : That of Self-Support. The first prob- 
lem was the building up of an organized, self-propa- 
gating, self-supporting church. While none of these 
ends have to this time been fully realized, such prog- 
ress has been made as no one would have dared to 
prophesy in 1876. There are at present one hundred 
and thirty-three organized churches, and seven hun- 
dred and forty meeting-places where religious services 
are held. Some of these churches are isolated groups 
of believers in tiny hamlets; others are large, well- 
organized, orderly bodies, with their own pastors, 
officers, Sunday and parish schools, and Bible-women. 
The question of self-support has been most difficult 
of solution. The people were poor, with a sodden, 
hopeless poverty of which we have no conception. There 
are more people who lie down hungry in India every 
night than live in the United States. British officials 



n6 FOLLOWING THE SUNRISE 

have estimated that one-third of the people from the 
cradle to the grave never have enough to eat. To be 
always hungry, to earn a few pennies a day when 
one earns at all, to be squeezed between the two 
millstones of rent and taxation, to be shut out from 
economic betterment by the inexorable customs of 
caste, to have the ever-present dread and the often 
realized suffering of famine, are a few of the reasons 
that prevent Telugu Christians from wholly support- 
ing their own churches. The statistics show that out 
of one hundred and thirty-three churches only twenty- 
two are to-day absolutely independent of any missionary 
aid. 

Telugu Liberality. In spite of difficulties things do 
move, and self-support is being manfully and per- 
sistently sought. There are thousands of Telugu 
homes where a handful of rice for God is taken out 
of the portion that goes into the family kettle at each 
meal. There are churches which have no money to 
bring to the collection, which bring in their tithes 
in good Old Testament fashion: chickens, eggs, 
grains, and pumpkins to adorn the collection, Sunday 
after Sunday. The spirit of the Telugu evangelists 
is fine. One of them is supporting himself, his wife, 
and three children on fifteen rupees (five dollars) per 
month. He never complains, and when the subject 
was brought up by a visiting American he replied : 
" I do not mind if I have to live like a buffalo so long 
as I may preach about Jesus." The children too 
catch the spirit of sacrificial giving. Many of the 
children are so poor that they have no clothing what- 



INDIA, THE RUDDER OF ASIA 117 

ever, and bring to the meeting their little collection, 
a few grains of their food, taken almost grain by 
grain from their small daily portion, tied up in a wee 
bit of rag. 

Some Girl Heroines. Mr. Baker says that the On- 
gole church is loyally supported by the schoolgirls, 
most of whom never have any money to spend. When 
the church made an effort, recently, to increase its 
receipts, the girls of the school held a meeting to see 
what they could do. After careful consideration the 
whole school decided that as Sunday was the day on 
which there were no hard lessons to learn or any 
garden to dig, plenty of food on that day was not 
so essential. They asked that they might go with- 
out the morning meal on Sunday, and give this money 
to their Lord. 

Seventy Miles with a Pumpkin. An old man at 
Gowanda, thirty-five miles north of Ongole, had a 
blessing manifestly from heaven, and a great desire 
to give something to Jesus took possession of him. 
The only suitable thing he had to give was a mag- 
nificent pumpkin he had raised with great care and 
protected a long time from thieves. But how was 
he to get it to the Lord? The hamlet had no Chris- 
tian teacher to tell him. " I will take it to the mis- 
sionary. He wall know what to do." In India this 
vegetable is w r orth about four cents. The old man 
walked seventy miles, and one-half the distance car- 
ried on his head a weight of about thirty pounds and 
the food for his journey, that he might present to the 
Lord an acceptable gift of four cents. 



n8 FOLLOWING THE SUNRISE 

Self-Support and Unselfishness. It is interesting 
to find that in India too, the shortest way to self- 
support is the long way around the world. The 
churches that are doing most in paying their own 
expenses are those that have been stirred with the 
missionary passion, and are thinking not solely nor 
chiefly of keeping the breath of life in their own or- 
ganization, but rather of making that organization 
a power for evangelizing the world. The Telugu 
Baptist Missionary Society is the greatest stimulus 
in the church life of India. Its work includes both 
home and foreign missions. It works among heathen 
tribes in India and among the Telugu immigrants in 
South Africa. 

First Telugu Foreign Missionary. It was in 1902 
that John Rungiah and his wife offered themselves 
to go as foreign missionaries to South Africa to labor 
among the Telugu immigrants at work in the mines 
and plantations. In 1910, Mr. B. C. Jacob, a faithful 
and able Telugu professor in the seminary at Rama- 
patnam, volunteered to go as a second missionary to 
South Africa. The reflex influence of the going of 
these men upon the home church was quite as re- 
markable as the good effected through their work 
as missionaries in the foreign field. For example, 
the little church at Hanumakonda, which had given 
fifty-four rupees for its own work and had no outside 
interests, is now able to raise two hundred and sev- 
enty-seven rupees for missions and self-support, and 
has been stimulated also to pay two hundred and fifty 
rupees for the education of its children. 



INDIA, THE RUDDER OF ASIA 119 

Second Problem: That of Industrial Betterment. 

Closely connected with the problem of self-support 
is that of improving industrial conditions. Because 
the bulk of the converts were from the outcastes, 
Christianity itself became an outcaste faith, and its 
converts were subjected to severe persecution. If 
one became a Christian he faced denial of the right 
to draw water from the village well, loss of trade, 
ostracism, and sometimes starvation and death. The 
industrial helplessness of the people has still further 
complicated the situation. When the majority of a 
village become Christians, the situation is somewhat 
easier. And it is in these Christian Telugu villages 
where the most striking transformation in the con- 
dition of the people has been wrought. The caste 
problem has terribly complicated matters. If a con- 
vert were not originally from the carpenter class, it 
was useless to teach him carpentry, as the whole 
weight of the carpenter caste and the cooperation of 
all the other castes would be thrown in the scale 
to shut him out from getting w r ork altogether. The 
great work of the next twenty-five years will be to 
impart such industrial education as shall help to raise 
the economic status of the people. What Tuskegee 
and Hampton and Spellman Seminary are doing for 
the colored people of America must be done, under 
infinitely harder conditions, for the outcaste Telugu 
Christians. 

An Industrial Experiment Station. Beginnings 
have already been made. In 1904, at Hanumakonda, 
a committee of the mission was appointed to study 



120 FOLLOWING THE SUNRISE 

the whole question of industrial education, especially 
the establishment of a normal agricultural training 
school, through which the average farmer should be 
taught to get a better living. An industrial experi- 
ment station was later organized in Ongole, and Rev. 
S. D. Bawden sent out as the first industrial mission- 
ary. For seven years he has been studying the whole 
problem and making a number of interesting experi- 
ments. One of these was to attempt to apply to 
conditions in India the principles of dry farming as 
developed in America. 

At this same experiment station pumps to use in 
irrigation were imported, with the result that a 
schoolboy running a pump could put as much water 
upon the land in a given time as could two yokes of 
bullocks. 

Improved Looms Needed. Another plan was con- 
sidered by which the large Christian community of 
the weaver-caste might be shown how to lift itself 
into competence and independence. Under the 
present conditions the weavers are at the mercy of 
the Sudras and local merchants, and the rates for 
weaving are so low that it is almost impossible for 
them, under present methods of work, to make a bare 
living. Improved looms are to be had; and improved 
methods of carding and spinning the cotton, and in 
winding and sizing the warp, might be introduced. 
Says the report : " The American who is a skilled 
weaver, with sympathy and patience, who will bring 
consecrated ingenuity to bear upon the task of so 
organizing the weavers in their villages as to reduce 



INDIA, THE RUDDER OF ASIA 121 

the cost of production by a very little, will be able 
to render a signal service to the advancement of self- 
support in our Christian churches. ,, 

The Bapatla Cooperative Association. Mr. Thoms- 
sen, of Bapatla, writes that he has noticed in his 
thirty years of ministry that poor Christians are, as 
a rule, poor Christians ; for grinding poverty means 
slavery, and it is almost impossible for a desperately 
poor man to be honest, truthful, and God-fearing. 
He believes that the basis of all effective industrial 
work must be cooperation. In 1909 he started at 
Bapatla the Cooperative Association, Limited. The 
government gave a tract of valuable land on which 
the shares, valued at five rupees, could be entirely 
paid for in ten years. Caste people and Moslems, 
as well as Christians, became members of the asso- 
ciation. Every cultivator of the land belonged to 
the association. He received loans for the cultivation 
of the association's lands, without interest, and every- 
thing was done to help the poor member to become 
well-to-do. During the year 1910 great strides for- 
ward were made. The dumping-ground of Bapatla 
was abolished, and the association converted the 
refuse and sweepings into a valuable fertilizer. A 
swamp near the town was drained and protected 
against floods. This was the first land association 
of this kind ever established in India. It has at- 
tracted favorable comment and aid from the govern- 
ment, and demonstrated that mission industries, if 
they are to be successful, must be carried on in 
cooperation with the people. 



122 FOLLOWING THE SUNRISE 

Forestry at Donakonda. At Donakonda the school- 
boys have been used to plant the big compound with 
five thousand trees. While these are growing, hay, 
fire-wood, fodder, gum arabic, and acacia seed can be 
raised so as nearly to pay for the cost of the planta- 
tion. In a few years the products from the trees 
will be profitable. The missionaries at Donakonda 
are of the opinion that forestry is the best way to 
utilize big compounds, where the soil is too poor for 
intensive farming. 

Dairying and Gardening. Mrs. Curtis has demon- 
strated at Donakonda the possibilities of dairy farm- 
ing on American lines. It remains for some conse- 
crated dairyman with a big fund of knowledge, 
adaptation, grit, and common sense to demonstrate 
on a larger scale what can be done for the uplift of 
the community by the introduction of better dairy 
methods. 

Industries at Ongole. At Ongole Miss Dessa was 
the first to lend a hand to industrial education. For 
years the boys in her school had the best vegetable 
and flower gardens in the district. They raised last 
year twenty-six kinds of fruits and vegetables and 
paid all their school tuition-fees with the profits. 
These oriental boys do not regard drawn-thread and 
bead work as girls' occupations, but do skilled and 
beautiful work. All the senior boys passed a recent 
government examination. The boys' earnings enabled 
them to support a native preacher, run two Christian 
Endeavor Societies, and have a balance of seventy- 
two rupees at the end of the year. 



INDIA, THE RUDDER OF ASIA 123 

Miss Evans is requiring the girls in her school, in 
Ongole, in a similar way, to work out their fees by 
gardening. She has had the whole garden dug out to 
the depth of a foot and good soil put in. Fertilizer 
has been furnished, from the school sanitation sys- 
tem, following scientific Japanese methods, and each 
girl from her garden-plot has had vegetables, grass, 
and fruit to sell. In addition, she teaches cotton- 
ginning, thread-making, crochet, knitting, and plain 
sewing. 

Hardships at Kurnool. In Kurnool the mission has 
helped native Christians secure about nine hundred 
acres of land from the government, on condition that 
they meet certain requirements. There have been 
found great difficulties, for the land is poor, the people 
poorer, without tools or skill. The Sudra neighbors 
who supply cattle and tools with which to work the 
impoverished little patches of land take half the crop 
as rent, although the entire crop is barely sufficient 
for livelihood. 

A Model Farm Needed. At Kurnool too, the mis- 
sionaries long for an expert agricultural missionary. 

He should establish families on these lands wher- 
ever possible. A motorcycle would make it possible 
for him to reach in a few hours the most distant farm. 
The chief object should be to bring these farms to a 
high state of cultivation. The efifect of such a plan 
would do more than simply raise a few families out 
of poverty. India is now on the threshold of great 
advance along agricultural lines. We should be add- 
ing our mite toward raising the depressed classes. 
We have the land, w r e have the people willing to work 



124 FOLLOWING THE SUNRISE 

these lands. Shall we assist them in the manner in- 
dicated? The opportunity of an agricultural mission- 
ary for doing good would be second to none in the 
mission field. His work on the land would bring him 
into intimate contact with the people. 

Third Problem: Caste. Greater even than the in- 
dustrial problem has been that of caste. Wherever 
these poor Christian people have tried to rise, they 
have met the solid opposition of the privileged classes, 
backed by the teaching of a religion which has built 
caste as the very corner-stone of its existence. Human 
nature in India is not so different from that in Amer- 
ica that the caste people have given up without a 
struggle any of their old privileges. 

Evidences of Caste Weakening. But caste itself, 
the greatest obstacle to the Christianization of India, 
is being slowly undermined. Cracks in its hard sur- 
face are already evident. One morning a little Madiga 
girl came into the school at Cumbum and asked that 
she might enroll in the school. Mr. Newcomb put 
his arm around her and said, "All right." After the 
missionary had left the room, the caste girls said to 
the native teacher, " How can our missionary come 
near us again after touching that little outcaste girl?" 
The teacher replied, " That is how Jesus loves every 
one, whether they have caste or not. You all love 
me very much, but I was a Madiga like that little 
girl when the missionary took me into school, and 
now I am your teacher." 

Community Celebration of Coronation. Perhaps 
the greatest evidences of the weakening of caste 




INDIAN CHRISTIAN CONVERTS FROM THREE CASTES 




PREACHING TO A VILLAGE AUDIENCE IN SOUTH INDIA 



INDIA, THE RUDDER OF ASIA 125 

prejudices were given at the time of the recent cor- 
onation festivities. At Ongole, the temple umbrella, 
an exceedingly sacred object which is held over the 
gods when they ride out to take an airing, was lent 
by the Hindu community to be held over the pictures 
of the Emperor and Empress of India, carried in Mis- 
sionary Baker's American carriage. The Christian 
schoolboys and girls, drawn for the most part from 
the outcaste portion of the community, received 
medals given by the Brahman district magistrate's 
own hand. In many places Hindus, Moslems, and 
Christians worked on the same committees in ar- 
ranging for the coronation festivities. In Kandukuru 
one of the features of the procession was the singing 
of songs by the school children. It was noticeable 
that the songs of the Christian school children elicited 
the most applause. Even the orthodox Hindus applauded. 
Opportunity in Mass Movements Among the Out- 
castes. The Bishop of Madras believes that the 
greatest opportunity before the Christian church in 
India to-day is in the ingathering of great masses 
of the outcaste people. Hinduism has had no place 
for them, no part in her ritual, no ministration from 
her priests, no hope for the future. In Christianity 
for the first time they realize their manhood. The 
bishop believes that within the next generation thirty 
millions of this people will be perfectly accessible to 
the work of Christian missions. No churches are better 
situated than are the Baptist for prosecuting a cou- 
rageous evangelistic, educational, and medical cam- 
paign among the outcaste peoples of South India. 



126 FOLLOWING THE SUNRISE 

They already have the largest Christian community as a 
basis. They have behind them seventy-five years of 
work, a fine system of common schools, a theological sem- 
inary, and training schools. All that is needed is the 
men and money for prosecuting the work on a scale 
adequate to the opportunities. 

Fourth Problem: Medical Missions. The medical 
service has been proved to be of inestimable value 
as an evangelizing agency. The ordinary evangelist 
has to go to a heathen. The medical evangelist has 
the heathen come to him. The records of the hospital 
at Hanumakonda in 1910 show that patients came 
from five hundred and twenty-nine villages. Among 
the patients were five thousand, five hundred and 
twenty-eight Hindus, two thousand, two hundred and 
forty Moslems, nine hundred and ninety-five Chris- 
tians, six hundred and sixty-five outcaste Hindus, 
forty Parsees, forty-eight Europeans and Eurasians. 
To every one of these the gospel was explained in 
word and song, and illustrated in lovely service. 

Medical Missions in Social Service. Medical mis- 
sionaries are valuable as a means of social service. 
Dirt, disease, and death are three foes which war 
against Christianity. A hospital is equipped to fight 
all three. The auxiliary work done in a Christian 
hospital in teaching sanitation, banishing cruel treat- 
ment of disease, preventing or stamping out epi- 
demics, and saving life cannot be overestimated. It 
is good and worth while apart from any religious 
value. Sixty-two per cent of those dying in Calcutta re- 
ceived in 1909 no medical attention of any kind. 



INDIA, THE RUDDER OF ASIA 127 

Every hospital is an emancipator of mothers from the 
frightful and needless suffering in childbirth due to 
native malpractice. The sacrifice of infant life in 
India is perhaps unequaled in any other country of 
the world. The Inspector General of Civil Hospitals 
in Bengal states, in his last report, that to supply the 
rural districts with the minimum number of dispen- 
saries, absolutely necessary, agencies must be multi- 
plied forty times. 

Superior Health of Christian Community. The hos- 
pital also helps to fight the plague, and to teach the 
poor people how to fight it. The Christian hospitals 
of India have been so successful in this that an ap- 
preciable effect has been made on the health of the 
Christian community. During the visitation of the 
plague in 1898 the native Christians followed the 
simple directions in regard to sanitation given them 
by medical missionaries, with the result that they 
had almost complete immunity from the plague. In 
Bombay, out of fifteen hundred native Christians, 
only six were attacked, although exposed to great 
risks because of their unselfish ministry to the sick. 

Scientific Value of Medical Missions. Medical mis- 
sionaries make discoveries of great scientific value. 
One such is reported in the practice of the hospital 
in Palmur. An antidote for the deadly bite of the 
cobra has been found in permanganate of potash. 
xAiter giving a number of examples in which life has 
been saved by this drug, Mr. Chute says : " To us 
the bite of the cobra has lost its terror. In no case 
where permanganate of potash has been applied has 



128 FOLLOWING THE SUNRISE 

the patient died after being bitten by the cobra. The 
remedy is also specific for the sting of the scorpion, 
and I believe that it may yet prove a specific for the 
bite of the mad dog. The only case in which we have 
known it to be used for this purpose has been followed 
by no bad symptoms." 

Evidential Value of Medical Missions. The med- 
ical missions are following in the path of the Great 
Physician. There is no surer way to incarnate the 
spirit of Jesus than by ministering to the suffering. 
As of old the people see the lame walk, the blind 
receive sight, the sick healed. When Doctor Stait, 
alone, for months bore the burden of caring for the 
sufferers through a violent epidemic of typho-malarial 
fever, she did more to translate the gospel to the 
people of India than she could have done through 
years of preaching. Night and day she and her band 
of Christian workers stood at their post. In many 
homes every member of the family was ill, and when 
brought in on cots to the hospital, they had received 
no care or bathing for weeks. Her loving hands 
washed, cleaned, and wrapped the poor fever-stricken 
bodies in clean, cool clothes. After months of cease- 
less toil, day and night, the brave doctor, who had 
been left to face alone this deadly epidemic, was her- 
self stricken with the disease and lay ill for many 
weary and anxious weeks. When, upon her recovery, 
she left for her furlough, a large meeting of non- 
Christians was held, and an address was read by a 
prominent government official, in which he said : " We 
hope that you, dear madam, will carry with you the 



INDIA, THE RUDDER OF ASIA 129 

esteem, love, affection, and gratitude of one and all 
of us without exception. You are loved by every 
Hindu, Mohammedan, and Christian resident in 
Udayagiri. ,, 

Needs of Medical Missions among the Telugus. 
The needs of the medical branch are many. For the 
most part the hospitals have been manned by women, 
and perhaps this is wise. The women of India are 
the most needy, destitute, suffering, and oppressed 
class in the world. It is abhorrent to all their ideals 
to employ men as physicians. If they are reached 
and helped it must be by the work of consecrated 
women physicians. Mrs. Heinrichs and Mrs. Elmore 
have both urged the strategic value of Ramapatnam 
in influencing the whole Telugu field through the 
medical training of the wives of the pastors during 
their years of residence at the Ramapatnam Theolog- 
ical Seminary. The trustees of the seminary have 
recently taken favorable action in this matter in pro- 
viding for the beginnings of a course in medical train- 
ing and practical midwifery. The work that these 
pastors' wives, thus instructed, can do in raising the 
standards of health and hygiene in their villages is 
simply incalculable. 

The Babies' Doctor. At Nellore is located the hos- 
pital for women and children whose physician, Doc- 
tor Degenring, is called the " Babies' Doctor." This is 
because her salary is raised by the offerings of the 
tiny tots in the Cradle Rolls. Each Baptist mother 
of a baby or tiny child is asked to pay ten cents each 
year to make her little one a member of the Cradle 
1 



130 FOLLOWING THE SUNRISE 

Roll. If only all did this there might be a " babies' 
doctor" in every other foreign mission as well as in 
Nellore. A woman physician is greatly needed in 
Palmur. Why cannot one result of this centennial 
study be that enough little ones join the Cradle Roll 
to supply two doctors for the babies of India? 

Fifth Problem: Education. The Telugu schools 
may be considered as an achievement or as a problem. 
It is gratifying to enumerate the Normal School at 
Bapatla, the Boys' High School and Girls' High 
School at Nellore, the High Schools at Ongole and 
Kurnool, the score of station boarding-schools, the 
six hundred elementary and village schools. With 
greater fruitfulness, however, we may consider their 
difficulties and problems; for in India all educational 
work is entering upon a period of testing and read- 
justment. The government influence has weighted 
the academic ideal in education so heavily that all 
schools have had to conform more or less closely to 
English standards. The government institutions have 
fitted men for clerical, government, or professional 
life, by the severe academic training imported from 
England, and applied with little adaptation to India's 
needs. The result has been a large body of men whose 
training leads them to despise manual labor, and 
whose economic needs make them centers of dissatis- 
faction. 

Agricultural Education. To-day a new spirit is 
stirring in India. It is realized that education ought 
not to mean training apart from environment. With 
eighty per cent of her population agricultural, India 



INDIA, THE RUDDER OF ASIA 131 

needs that the village schools be schools of agricul- 
ture. The work which Canada and Japan are doing 
through their rural schools to transform rural life 
must be done for the Indian village community. 

Says Rev. W. H. Hollister, of Kolar, Mysore Prov- 
ince, India: 

I believe it possible to broadcast a new type of vil- 
lage schools all over India, each school having farm 
and garden-plots where boys and girls will be taught 
the best methods of agriculture, horticulture, and stock- 
raising, and with unpretentious workshops in which to 
teach handicrafts suited to rural lives. 

For some time government grants to village schools 
have been decreasing. This may not be such a 
tragedy, but rather a first-class opportunity, if only 
the funds can be furnished to the missionaries to 
make experiments which were impossible as long as 
the rigid academic standard was the price of the gov- 
ernment grant. A type of schoolmaster can be trained 
who shall not regard his function to be simply the 
hearing of recitations, or the preparation of pupils 
for academic examinations so that " good marks " can 
be secured; but who shall aim to make the school 
an expression of community life and an agency for 
community betterment. 

B. THE BENGAL-ORISSA MISSION 

The vote of the Free Baptists, taken at their Gen- 
eral Conference in July, 1910, to cooperate with the 
Baptists of the Northern Baptist Convention in mis- 



132 FOLLOWING THE SUNRISE 

sion work, marked the achievement of the most sig- 
nificant advance in Baptist polity made during the 
opening years of the twentieth century. There was 
a poetic justice in the union of the two bodies in mis- 
sionary work, since the history of their Indian mis- 
sions had been intertwined at the very beginning. 

An Apostolic Letter. A remarkable chain of cir- 
cumstances linked the Baptists of England and 
America together in the founding of the Bengal Mis- 
sion. Rev. James Colman and his wife were among 
the first party of Baptist missionaries who sailed out 
of Boston harbor in 1817. When the Burman war 
began they were exiled to Calcutta, where he died, 
July 4, 1822. Mrs. Colman, who had become super- 
intendent of the schools for girls, with over two hun- 
dred pupils enrolled, was later married to Rev. Amos 
Sutton, a missionary of the English Baptists. It was 
because of a suggestion of his wife that a letter was 
addressed by Amos Sutton to the Free Baptists of 
America setting forth the great needs of the field, 
and asking their cooperation. Since Mrs. Sutton 
could not remember the address of the " Morning Star," 
the organ of the American Free Baptists, this letter 
was pigeon-holed for several months and forgotten. 
One day a package came to Mr. Sutton from England. 
One of its wrappings proved to be an old copy of 
the " Morning Star." The letter was sent to America 
and printed in the " Morning Star," April 13, 1832. 
As God had used Judson's appeal to rouse the Bap- 
tists, he now used this letter to summon the Free 
Baptists into missionary activity. Two years later 




CHURCH AND CONGREGATION AT BHIMPORE 




SINCLAIR ORPHANAGE AT BALASQRE 



INDIA, THE RUDDER OF ASIA 133 

Mr. and Mrs. Sutton came to America and did a 
wonderful work among the churches. It was through 
the appeals of Mr. Sutton that the Baptists decided 
to begin mission work among the Telugus. When 
the Suttons returned to India in 1835 they took with 
them not only the first missionaries of the Free Bap- 
tists, Rev. and Mrs. Jeremiah Phillips and Rev. and 
Mrs. Eli Noyes, but also Rev. and Mrs. Samuel S. 
Day, the founders of the Lone Star Mission. After 
seventy-five years of separate existence these two 
missions were brought together under the manage- 
ment of the American Baptist Foreign Mission So- 
ciety in 1910. 

The Field. The field selected by the Free Baptists 
for their mission stretches one hundred and fifty miles 
along the Bay of Bengal to the southwest of Calcutta. 
Through it runs the old pilgrim road trodden by mil- 
lions of pilgrims on their way down from the north 
through Midnapore, Jellasore, and Balasore to the 
sacred cities of the south. There are four millions 
of people living in the closely scattered villages of 
the Bengal and Orissa Provinces in which the mission 
is located. Work is done chiefly in the Bengali and 
Oriya languages, though Santali, Hindustani, and 
Telugu are also spoken. While most of the people 
are Hindus, there are seventy-five thousand Moslems 
in the cities. The aboriginal Santals number about 
two hundred thousand. 

Varieties of Work. The pioneers began with street 
preaching and touring in the country districts. As 
Christians were gathered the work of education and 



i 3 4 FOLLOWING THE SUNRISE 

training began. The Boys' High School at Balasore, 
the Phillips Bible School, and the Bible- Woman's 
Training School at Midnapore, with one hundred vil- 
lage schools, are laying the basis of a Christian com- 
munity. Industrial education has received successful 
emphasis. At Balasore there are sixty boys in the 
industrial school. Weaving is taught so successfully 
that the school sells enough cloth to maintain itself. 
It received the gold medal given by the government 
recently for the best display of cloth at the Balasore 
district industrial exhibition. A successful lace in- 
dustry is maintained by Mrs. Kennan at Bhimpore. 
Medical missions have taken a prominent place. One 
of the features of the mission has been the orphan- 
ages for boys and girls at Balasore, Bhimpore, and 
Santipore. Many of the leading Christian workers 
have been from among these orphans. 

The Santals. The Free Baptists share with other 
Baptist brethren a predilection for work among 
primitive people. The Santals, like the Karens, have 
responded in a remarkable way to the preaching of 
the gospel. There is no brighter page in the history 
of the mission than that of the transformation effected 
in Santal villages by the entrance of Christianity. 

Converts. There have been no mass movements in 
the Bengal-Orissa Mission. The converts have been 
won individually, a good proportion of them from 
the caste people. Hence the influence of the Christian 
community is very marked in comparison with its 
numbers. There are fifteen hundred communicants 
and four thousand children in the Sunday-schools. 



INDIA, THE RUDDER OF ASIA 135 

The mission has been notable in the number of strong 
Christian workers which it has developed. Some of 
the native preachers have proved competent to direct 
the work of a whole station. 



Facts About India 

Population (census of 1911) 315,000,000 

Hindus 217,580,000 

Mohammedans 66,620,000 

Christians 3,870,000 

Christian increase in ten years 33% 

Hindu increase in ten years 5% 

Increase of Catholic Christians 24% 

Increase of Protestant Christians 41^% 

Increase of Syrian Christians 27% 

Christian population of India from 1891 to 1901 increased 
twenty times as fast as the population. 

Medical missionaries number 404 

Total missionary force numbers 5,200 

Joseph Cook called India "The Rudder of Asia." 

" Less than one per cent of children of school age are in 
school."—; /. R. Mott. 

India feeds and cares for 5,000,000 religious mendicants. 

Indian Christians, out of their deep poverty, contribute one 
dollar per capita, per annum. 

Average income of Christian family is Rs. 5, or one dollar and 
sixty-six cents per month. 

British and Foreign Bible Society has issued 17,500,000 copies 
of the Scriptures in Indian languages. 

Total circulation of the Scriptures in India, Burma, and 
Ceylon for 191 1 equals 1,009,008. 

Growth of circulation in ten years, 77 per cent. 



136 FOLLOWING THE SUNRISE 

Baptist Educational Institutions in South India 

Ramapatnam Theological Seminary, Ramapatnam, South India. 

Rev. J. Heinrichs, president; Rev. W. T. Elmore, and native 

faculty. 
A spacious and beautiful wooded compound at Ramapatnam 
by the sea came into the possession of the Telugu Mission, and 
here the seminary was established in 1872. Not only the young 
men, but also their wives, are educated here, and some of the 
Telugu women have proved brilliant students in the highest 
classes. The students number about 100. 

Bapatla Normal Training School, Bapatla, South India. Under 
management of Rev. G. N. Thomssen. 

The great need among the Christian hamlets of South India 
is for teacher-pastors, and such the normal school supplies for 
all the mission. It has a large "practice school." It needs new 
buildings. 

American Baptist Mission High School, Ongole, South India. 
L. E. Martin, A. M., principal; and native faculty. 

Ongole is one of our largest mission centers in South India. 
About 325 boys attend the school, many of them Hindus and 
Mohammedans. 

American Baptist Mission High School, Nellore, South India. 
Rev. L. C. Smith, principal. 

This has a high standing among the schools of Madras 
Presidency and continues to attract many Hindus, in spite of 
bitter protests against its pronounced Christian character. About 
300 boys attend. A new building has been erected. 

Coles Memorial High School, Kurnool, South India. Rev. Henry 
Huizinga, Ph. D., principal. 

The new building for the high school is one of the finest 
in South India. 



INDIA, THE RUDDER OF ASIA 137 

Nellore Girls' High School, Nellore, South India. Miss Ella M. 
Draper. 

Only high-school work is done in this school, where the ma- 
jority of the girls are from the non-caste peoples. 



Baptist Educational Institutions in Bengal-Orissa 

Phillips Bible School at Midnapore. 

This is a training school for native workers. Ninety-five per 
cent of workers in the Bengal-Orissa Mission are graduates of 
this school. 

Boys' High School at Balasore. Rev. G. H. Hamlen, principal. 
This school, which has an enrolment of 258, is rapidly enlar- 
ging its work, is receiving aid from the government, and is more 
and more chosen by non-Christian parents as a school for their 
sons. Additional rooms and a chapel constitute the imperative 
needs at the present time. 



Bibliography 

1. Telugus 

Ware, Christian Missions in the Telngu Country. London, So- 
ciety for Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, 1912. 

Downie, History of the Telngu Mission. Philadelphia, American 
Baptist Publication Society, 1893. 

Clough, From Darkness to Light. Boston, 1882. 
A story of the Telugu awakening. 

Mott, Decisive Hour of Christian Missions. New York. Student 
Volunteer Movement, 1910. 
A critical study of movements and forces in non-Christian 

world. See under "India" in index. 

Missions in South India. Boston, American Baptist Foreign 
Mission Society. 



138 FOLLOWING THE SUNRISE 

Merriam, History of American Baptist Missions, Chapter XIV. 
Year Book of Missions in India, Burma, and Ceylon. New- 
York, Missionary Education Movement, 1912. 
An indispensable source for knowledge of many features 
described in this chapter. 

Chamberlain, The Kingdom in India. New York, Revell, 1908. 

2. Bengal-Orissa Mission 

Griffin, India and Daily Life in Bengal. Philadelphia, American 

Baptist Publication Society, 1912. 
Stacy, In the Path of Light. Chapters XI, XII. New York, 

Revell, 1895. 
Free Baptist Cyclopedia. 1889. 

Good articles touching on persons and history of this mission. 
Missions in Bengal. Boston, American Baptist Foreign Mission 

Society, 1912. 



THE CHANCE IN CHINA 




l/Bangkok f . 

Pnom Ppt^v. 



MAi' SHU W UN Kx J. ilJCi 

FIELDS AND STATIONS 

v ° V^^S i 1 OF THE 

\ FRENCH 1 ( 

— 1— AMERICAN BAPTIST Man 

FOREIGN MISSION SOCIETY 
Stations of A.B.F.3I.S.: UngkUlljj 

I Proposed—-—-. 

Scale of Miles 




105 Longitude C 



D from 115 Greenwich E 



CHAPTER V 
THE CHANCE IN CHINA 

China's Giant Bulk. The fact bulking biggest in 
the world to-day is China. Her sheer physical mass is 
overwhelming. Says Doctor Gracey : " Lay all Europe 
on China, and you will have thirteen hundred square 
miles uncovered. Lay China on the United States and 
it will overrun the Gulf of Mexico and four degrees into 
the Pacific Ocean. Reverse the experiment and lay the 
United States, including Alaska, on China, and you may 
gem the edges with a half-dozen Great Britains and Ire- 
lands. Change China from its present shape to that of 
a belt of land a mile wide, and there would be room for 
a walking match, from end to end, of thirty miles a day 
continued for more than four and a half centuries. " 
China's numbers are bewildering. Here, under one gov- 
ernment, are gathered together four hundred and thirty 
millions of people, nearly one-fourth of the entire popu- 
lation of the globe. When it is considered that half the 
world lives in Asia, and of the population of Asia forty- 
six per cent is included in India and China, one gets a 
dim conception of the enormous numbers of the popula- 
tion of China. 

Her Imperial Resources. China's resources stagger 
the statistician. Here are untouched fields of anthracite 
coal that make those of Pennsylvania seem parochial in 

141 



142 FOLLOWING THE SUNRISE 

size; vast iron fields, great oil territory, unexcelled min- 
eral wealth, rivers so deep that ocean steamers can sail 
six hundred miles inland, and a network of streams and 
canals that insure an unsurpassed system of water trans- 
portation. There are undeveloped wheat-fields vaster 
than those of Canada. China has productive land ade- 
quate to feed and clothe its people for a thousand years. 

The Revolution. On this rich country is placed 
a great people, at once the oldest, youngest, most con- 
servative, most radical among nations; a race that sur- 
vives overcrowding, underfeeding, unending toil, tyranny, 
dirt, and disease. This people, after stereotyping a system 
of education and resting apparently content for centuries 
in the contemplation of their past, are on the move once 
more in a revolution that, for extent, variety, depth, 
swiftness, and sobriety, is unparalleled in history. It 
has been a change in government by which a foreign 
dynasty, upheld by force for two centuries and a half, 
has been replaced by a republic. This feat has been 
accomplished with less shedding of blood than accom- 
panied single battles of the Civil War in America. 

Educational Upheaval. It has meant the most 
amazing educational reformation in history. A system 
of schools that was well established when Abraham went 
out of Ur in Chaldees has been abandoned. The Chinese 
have thrown over the old learning, methods, text-books, 
subject-matter, examinations, theory. They have begun 
again from the beginning. In one generation they must 
make the transition from the oldest to the most modern 
theories in educational science. They cannot make it 
successfully without help. 



THE CHANCE IN CHINA 143 

Social Changes. It has meant a revolution in social 
custom. For the first time, women as well as men are 
to be admitted to the institutions of higher learning. 
Foot-binding has been discredited and prohibited by the 
government. Marriage customs are in process of chan- 
ging. Judicial procedures are being overhauled. The 
whole system of criminal jurisprudence has been altered. 
The wearing of the cue, that distinct badge of the 
Chinaman, has been abandoned. European dress is 
superseding the old Chinese costume. The Chinese New 
Year is set aside for the first of January. In his travel 
and amusements, in his social engagements and his 
schools, in his marriage and in his funeral customs, the 
Chinese is definitely committed to a policy of bringing 
himself into harmony with the rest of the world. 

The Industrial Revolution. It has meant a revo- 
lution in industry. Within one brief generation one- 
fourth of the human race will be transferred from the 
age-long method of hand production to the new factory 
system. Its water-power will be harnessed to the service 
of factories, smelters will be begun, steel-mills opened, 
flouring-mills established. The cotton which is raised in 
China will be there woven into cotton cloth. Silk-mills 
will take the place of the old hand-looms. Nor does one 
need to put this in the future tense. The process is 
already begun. When one considers that within the 
bounds of the Chinese Empire is gathered a most 
numerous, hardy, and industrious people, trained through 
long centuries to unremitting toil, and gifted with a 
genius for commercial affairs, the stupendous issues at 
stake are clearly evident. China has a superlative quality 

K 



i 4 4 FOLLOWING THE SUNRISE 

and quantity of coal, oil, and iron, the triad on which 
industrial supremacy is built. Her entrance into the 
fields of modern industrial organization, with the devel- 
opment of her water and electrical power, means much 
to the world for good or for ill. 

Urgency of the Crisis. All these revolutionary 
changes must be accomplished \yithin the space of one 
generation. Said the Chinese Commissioner at Edin- 
burgh : " My nation is a people which has broken with 
its past. We are like a crystal in solution. We shall re- 
crystallize." As has been said: " If the Classical Revival, 
the Italian Renaissance, the Protestant Reformation, the 
French and American Revolutions, and the modern era 
of machine production be conceived of as operating at the 
same place and time upon a single people, one may gain 
some faint conception of the magnitude of the revolution 
now taking place in China." The land, the people, the 
present crisis, make China the focal point in the interest 
of the mission forces of to-day. The aim of the present 
chapter will be to trace the part played by Baptists in 
the planting of Christianity in China, to note the present- 
day opportunities, and to indicate the pressing needs of 
that part of the work committed to their hands. 

Pioneer Missionary Endeavor. Baptists were not 
the first to enter China. In 1807, Robert Morrison, the 
pioneer to China, was sent out by the London Missionary 
Society. While yet in England he had begun work on 
the Chinese language by copying the Chinese manuscript 
in the British Museum. The ships of the British East 
India Company would not sell passage to a missionary, 
so Morrison was forced to go to China by way of New 



THE CHANCE IN CHINA 145 

York. When he reached China he was not allowed to 
land on the mainland, or to do any except secret mis- 
sionary work. He became a translator in the factory of 
the East India Company, located outside Canton, and was 
virtually a prisoner in his own house. Here he worked 
untiringly on a dictionary and translation of the Bible. 
In 1814 the first copies of the Chinese New Testament 
left the press. And in May of the same year, near the 
seashore, beside a spring which issued from the foot of 
a high mountain, the Chinese printer, Tsa Aku, who had 
helped Morrison to print the New Testament, was bap- 
tized. 

Meager First-Fruits. When Morrison died in 1834, 
after a life of heroic self-devotion, there were but three 
Protestant Christians in China. The Bible had been 
translated by the help of two Chinamen who had been 
obliged to work in secret, hidden behind piles of mer- 
chandise in the Canton warehouse of the East India Com- 
pany. If detected they would themselves have suffered 
death by horribly cruel punishment. 

In the years between 1829 and 1834, the American 
Congregationalists sent out Elijah C. Bridgman, David 
Abeel, and Peter Parker, the first medical missionary, to 
establish a precarious footing in Canton. All missionary 
work was interrupted by the opium war, and not resumed 
until the treaty of 1840 won for the missionaries the 
right to reside and to teach in the five treaty ports. " The 
same war," says Dr. Robert Speer, " which fastened the 
opium curse on China, opened the country to the mis- 
sionary and set on foot the vast movement of the Tai 
Ping Rebellion." 



146 FOLLOWING THE SUNRISE 

Tremendous Obstacles to Overcome. Doctor 
Milne, the coadjutor of Morrison, has said of the diffi- 
culties of learning the Chinese language, that it was a 
work for men with " bodies of brass, lungs of steel, heads 
of oak, hands of spring steel, eyes of eagles, hearts of 
apostles, memories of angels, and lives of Methuselah." 
But great as were these difficulties, the moral and spir- 
itual obstacles were even greater. When Morrison died 
the prospects for any successful outcome of the enter- 
prise to which he had devoted his life were dark indeed. 
To unabated intolerance and contempt on the part of the 
Chinese, exclusion and fanaticism and official arrogance 
without parallel, were added uneven and meager support, 
a force never sufficient for the task put upon it, and the 
disheartening apathy of the Church at home. Three 
helpers had come to Morrison, but these had either died 
or withdrawn, so that in 1829 he was absolutely alone. 
It is to the period which immediately followed the open- 
ing up of the treaty ports that the work of American 
Baptists, like that of the Presbyterians, Methodists, and 
Church of England, belongs. 

Baptist Work Begun in Siam. The story of Amer- 
ican Baptist missionary work in China, strangely enough, 
does not begin in China, but in Siam, where it is inter- 
woven with the story of missions in Burma. Chinese im- 
migrants had been going into Siam in increasing streams 
for decades, attracted by the rich resources and sparse 
population of the land. Even to this day Siam has a 
population of only six million people in a territory 
larger than Germany ; hence Siam does not feel the pres- 
sure of life as do many oriental nations. 



THE CI IANCE IN CHINA 147 

Circumstances of Siam's Opening. It was Ann 

Hasseltine Judson, the heroine of Burma, who first called 
the attention of Baptists to Siam. She found time in her 
brief life of unsurpassed toil and suffering to learn 
enough of the language from an immigrant Siamese to 
translate the Gospel of Matthew into Siamese. Then the 
very ship which brought the Siamese twins to the United 
States brought also an appeal to American churches to 
enter Siam. The Congregationalists responded first in a 
mission that seemed a failure, but really had long, long 
influence, for it gave Siam a tutor to the Crown Prince, 
who made him the first progressive monarch of the Far 
East, Chulalongkorn, the steadfast friend of missions. 

Doctor Jones Goes to Siam. The first Baptist mis- 
sionary who entered Siam was John Taylor Jones, of 
Moulmein, Burma. During his missionary service in 
Moulmein he had become interested in an interior tribe 
called the Talains, among whom no work had yet been 
done. While attempting to learn their language, he 
found that they were very numerous in Siam, where they 
could be more easily reached through the Siamese lan- 
guage. Those were the days of pioneer experimentation 
in missions. So Doctor Jones light-heartedly set out for 
Bangkok, and there began in earnest the study of Siamese. 
He hoped by this means to reach the Talain people scat- 
tered throughout Burma and Siam, who had no written 
language. Doctor Jones was another in the long roll of 
Baptist missionaries who have been distinguished in the 
translation of the Bible. In 1843 he had completed his 
translation of the New Testament into Siamese, and 
as an interpreter had rendered valuable services to the 



148 FOLLOWING THE SUNRISE 

government of Siam and to the English and American 
ambassadors in their treaty negotiations. 

William Dean Sent to the Chinese. While Doctor 
Jones during his service in Bangkok had come into con- 
tact with Chinese immigrants, it was William Dean who 
was sent out as the first American Baptist missionary to 
the Chinese, under instructions to proceed to Bangkok 
and there begin his study of the Chinese language. At 
that time entrance into China was so difficult, and a foot- 
hold there so precarious, that it seemed to the Board that 
Siam offered the best door of entrance into China. 

Adventure with Pirates. It was a notable group 
of missionaries that sailed from Boston on the good ship 
" Cashmere," July 3, 1834. In addition to the Deans, 
there were the Wades, with the two Karen Christians 
who had accompanied Mr. Wade in his wonderful meet- 
ings throughout the country; the Howards, the Vintons, 
the Osgoods, the Comstocks, all bound for Burma. At 
Moulmein, where the Burmese missionaries left the ship, 
a frail little six-year-old boy was brought on board and 
entrusted to the Deans as far as Singapore. This was 
George Dana Boardman, later one of the best loved and 
most distinguished ministers of the Baptist denomina- 
tion. He was a son of George Dana Boardman, the asso- 
ciate of Adoniram Judson. Those were perilous days. 
The Deans, after a few weeks' delay in Singapore, took 
the little fellow in a Chinese boat to put him aboard the 
" Cashmere," which was about to sail for the United 
States. On the way, when ten miles from shore and five 
miles from the ship, they were attacked, while alone and 
unarmed, by fierce Malay pirates. Mr. Jones was thrown 



THE CHANCE IN CHINA 149 

into the water and nearly drowned, and both he and Mr. 
Dean received numerous spear-thrusts. But the child, 
hiding under the seat of the boat, was unharmed. 

First Protestant Church in Siam. The work among 
the Chinese had already had its small beginnings when 
William Dean arrived in Bangkok. Among the little com- 
pany who had been coming to Doctor Jones' house for in- 
struction, was a Christian Chinese convert and a little 
band of inquirers. These became a nucleus of the first 
Protestant church in Siam, organized by Mr. Dean in 
1837. During his ministry in Siam Mr. Dean organized 
five Chinese churches, and baptized about five hundred 
Chinese disciples, a larger number probably than were 
gathered in during the same period in all China. Many 
of these emigrants, upon their return to the mother coun- 
try, became obscure sowers of the seed of the gospel, 
whose abundant harvest we are witnessing in our own 
times. 

Echoes of an Old Dispute. As soon as the signing 
of the treaty in 1842 threw open the five treaty ports to 
missionary effort, the Baptist mission was planted on the 
mainland of China. Mr. Dean moved up to Hongkong 
from Siam, and John L. Shuck and Issacher Roberts, 
from the settlement of Macao, where they had gathered a 
tiny church, the first Baptist church of China. The com- 
ment of an early historian casts an amusing side light 
upon the distance we have come from those early days of 
uncompromising and sometimes prickly standing up for 
opinion. It seems that in 1847 Mr. Roberts had made a 
vain effort to unite a little church in Canton, founded by 
Mr. Shuck, with a church of three members which he 



/ 



ISO FOLLOWING THE SUNRISE 

himself had organized. Because Mr. Shuck had been, in 
1845, the only one of the Baptist missionaries in China to 
cast his lot with the Southern Baptist Convention, this 
very sensible proposal of Mr. Roberts was bitterly opposed 
and defeated. The historian solemnly, and with a wise 
shake of the head, thus comments : 

He seems not to have considered that only one 
w r ronged and oppressed Baptist is sufficient to commence 
pulling down a church, and so making no end of noise 
and dust. Dear reader, harken to the voice of experi- 
ence. 

Thank God, we do not live in those dear old days. 

John L. Shuck Enlists. It was this same gallant 
soidier of Christ, John L. Shuck, about whom the follow- 
ing story is told: At the close of a missionary meeting, 
when the deacons were counting the offering, they found 
with the coins and bills a card on which was written one 
word : " Myself." " Who put this in ? " asked one. " Oh, 
a young man back in the congregation/' was the answer. 
But this young man was destined to be one of the noblest 
soldiers of the Cross sent into China by the Baptists of 
the South. 

Beginnings in Kwangtung. The province in which 
the Baptists had now established their mission was 
Kwangtung. Here, in the territory about as large as 
Oregon, lives a population as numerous as that of France. 
From this province come most of the immigrants to the 
United States; the Cantonese, sailors, adventurers, mer- 
chants, traders — restless and democratic. It was not until 
after the war of 1857 that the mission was transferred to 



OX THE MISSION COMPOUND AT SWATOW 




CHINESE BIBLE-WOMEN AND MISSIONARY 



THE CHANCE IN CHINA 151 

Swatow, then for the first time thrown open to foreign 
trade and residence. Here in Swatow the Ashmores, 
Johnsons, and Partridges addressed themselves to the 
task of laying deep foundations for the present wonder- 
ful center of the South China Mission. The story of 
Swatow is another illustration of how one man sows and 
another reaps. The Rhenish and Basel missions of Ger- 
many had entered Kwangtung in 1847. One of their 
great men had made a heroic and persistent attempt to 
establish a station there and had been repulsed by the 
insolence and contempt of the people. Yet, in this very 
region, William Ashmore, of the Baptist, and William C. 
Burns, of the English Presbyterian mission, were to found 
one of the great Christian centers in China. 

Troublous Days for the Missionaries. The first 
twenty years after the opening of the five treaty ports 
were calculated to test the fiber of the missionaries. 
Everywhere they were surrounded by opposition and mis- 
understanding, by the covert threatenings of politicians, 
the anti-foreign feeling of the people, the constant pres- 
ence of war. For fifteen years the Tai Ping Rebellion 
devastated the empire, interrupting mission work alto- 
gether for long periods. Baptist missionaries were close 
to the springs of this most terrible civil war in history, 
a war in which whole provinces were made deserts, and 
during which fifty millions of people perished. One can 
understand neither the past nor the present of Chinese 
missions without taking account of the Tai Ping Rebel- 
lion, so long misunderstood and belittled. 

Victorious March of the Tai Pings. Sweeping out 
of the South came the terrible iconoclasts, breaking up 



152 FOLLOWING THE SUNRISE 

idols, throwing them into the rivers, conquering all before 
them, until they had taken their victorious army to Nan- 
king, the ancient capital of the nation. They were never 
checked until the government forces were drilled and 
officered by an American, General Ward ; nor conquered, 
except by the genius of General Charles G. Gordon, the 
hero of Khartoum. Says Dr. W. A. P. Martin : " Had 
foreign powers promptly recognized the Tai Ping chief, 
might it not have shortened a chapter of horrors that 
dragged on for fifteen years and caused the loss of fifty 
millions of human lives ? Is it not probable that the new 
power would have shown more aptitude than did the old 
one for the assimilation of new ideas?''* 

An Unrealized Possibility. Many of the best in- 
formed observers were of the opinion that in the Tai 
Ping Rebellion were great possibilities for the Christiani- 
zation of China, unrealized because the so-called Christian 
nations were not ready when the crisis came. 

It was the day of all days for the evangelization of 
China. God seemed to stay the sun in the heavens to pro- 
long it, but it passed at last. The shadows fell again 
across the land, and in the dark the temples rose, and 
once more the idols came back and looked down on their 
worshipers, and the Christian church, barring here and 
there some eager soul, who felt the anguish of it all, slept 
content, not knowing what the day was that had gone. 
— Robert E. Speer. 

Issacher Roberts, First Missionary to Lepers. Dur- 
ing the entire twenty years preceding the collapse of the 

* Cycle of Cathay, p. 14. 



THE CHANCE IN CHINA 153 

Tai Ping Rebellion in 1865, the whole nation had been 
kept in a constant whirl of excitement and terror which 
made the prosecution of missionary work difficult or im- 
possible. One of the picturesque figures of these early 
years was the Issacher Roberts who has already been 
mentioned in connection with the Tai Ping Rebellion. 
He gave his own property to create the fund which sent 
him out in 1836. He worked at his trade of saddlery to 
support himself while in Macao, and was probably the 
first missionary in China to begin Christian work among 
the lepers, as he was the first to pay with his own life the 
price of such ministry. For in 1866 he returned to his 
country, himself a leper, to die. 

Second Center Opened Among the Hakkas. It 
was not until 1882 that the second center in the South 
China Mission was opened among the Hakkas in the hill- 
country. These Hakkas are an immigrant people speak- 
ing a different dialect from that of Swatow. They are a 
powerful people, of strong intellectual capacity, showing 
an unusual passion for education. Their women have 
never bound their feet. The vicissitudes which have de- 
layed the pioneer work among this people are shown in the 
simple statement that out of twenty missionaries assigned 
to the Hakkas sixteen have died or been compelled to 
retire for ill-health, so that for years the burden of the 
work rested on one family, the Whitmans. The last five 
years have seen the determined reenforcement of this 
field. In 1911 the Missionary Conference of South China 
urged upon the Society to give a paramount place to the 
needs of the Hakka Chinese. Little has been done up to 
this time to carry out this recommendation. 



154 FOLLOWING THE SUNRISE 

Original Contribution to the Science of Missions. 

Miss Adele Field was the first missionary to train and 
employ Bible-women, a form of service so fruitful that it 
has been caught up and developed by the missionaries of 
every denomination in the mission fields of the world. 
Like all great inventions, it is so simple that we wonder 
why every one did not think of it. Miss Field's practice 
was to gather together groups of Christian Chinese 
women to teach them some simple gospel truth, and 
to send them out to teach this in the homes of the com- 
munity, wherever a door was open to them. When they 
returned, she patiently taught another lesson, and sent 
them out again. This simple method of hers marks the 
call of a new regiment into the army of mission work. 
It is recognized to-day that the Bible-woman is one of 
the most essential and efficient factors in the spread of 
Christianity in any country. 

Beginnings of the East China Mission. The sec- 
ond field to be entered was East China. All the stations 
but Nanking and Shanghai are located in Chekiang, the 
smallest and most eastern province of China, with a 
population of eleven millions in a territory no larger than 
that of Ohio. This busy province, with its rich commer- 
cial cities, its hills and mountains, its fertile valleys, and 
many rivers, is one of the richest in the Empire, and con- 
tains Hangchow, the ancient capital of the country during 
the Sung dynasty. In this province many missionaries 
from many lands and churches are working together, and 
some might feel that the Baptists were not really needed. 
" What? Three hundred missionaries in one province? " 
Yes, but that only means one missionary to thirty thou- 



THE CHANCE IN CHINA 155 

sand people. In America it would take twenty-seven 
thousand Protestant ministers to look after the eleven 
million, five hundred thousand people, besides all the 
other church workers and the Catholic priests. So, per- 
haps, the modest Baptist contingent of fifty missionaries, 
more or less, does not overcrowd the situation. Here are 
Ningpo, and Shaohsing, and Kinhwa, and Huchow, and 
Hangchow, all great cities, centers of influence, not only 
of this province, but of the entire country. In the ad- 
jacent provinces of Kiangsu there are stations in Shanghai 
and Nanking, the " New York " and " Boston " of China. 
Work in these two East China provinces was opened by 
the first Baptist medical missionary to China, D. J. Mac- 
Gowan, M.D., who opened a hospital at Ningpo in 1843, 
and did for this part of China the same sort of work that 
Dr. Peter Parker had done in Canton. His cures and 
operations seemed nothing less than miraculous to the 
Chinese. Notable names of the East China Mission are 
>he Goddards, the Knowltons, and the Jenkinses. Doctor 
Goddard's translation of the New Testament in the 
vernacular of the common people was published in 
1872 by the American and Foreign Bible Society. 

Beginnings in West China. It was forty years after 
the opening of the work before a third field, West China, 
was added to Baptist missions. On the western edge of the 
Empire lies the Empire State, Szechuan (Four Rivers), 
the largest and most populous province of the republic, 
with an area greater than that of California, and a popu- 
lation of sixty-eight millions. Here is an imperial land 
of mountains and streams and fruitful valleys, of great 
mineral wealth, with an industrious, ambitious, and pro- 



156 FOLLOWING THE SUNRISE 

gressive people whose standard of living has never been 
reduced to that of the crowded East and South. The 
recent revolution began in Szechuan, and here is one of 
the centers for all forward-looking movements. 

When our first missionary entered Szechuan in 1884, it 
was really primitive pioneer territory " three months up 
the river." The missionaries assumed Chinese dress and 
met narrow escapes at the hands of Chinese mobs before 
they could plant the mission at Suifu. " I went to find 
a heathen, I found a brother," said one of them on his 
first furlough. 

Work Interrupted by Anti-Foreign Riots. Stations 
have been established at Suifu (1889) ; Kiatingfu (1894) ; 
Yachowfu (1894); Ningyuanfu (1905); and Chengtu 
(1909). The first bitter prejudice of the people seemed 
softened, when the terrible riots of 1895 made it neces- 
sary for all the missionaries in Szechuan to flee for their 
lives, and broke up all missionary work for a year. The 
work was again beginning to thrive, when came the 
Boxer uprising. All missionaries were ordered to leave. 
When they returned after the storm had calmed, they 
were rejoiced to find that the little Christian community 
had come through the terrible ordeal unscathed, faithful 
unto death. 

Central China Mission. The last of the quadrilat- 
eral of missions to be formed is the Central China Mission, 
located in the very ganglion of industrial China, in the 
province of Hupeh. Ocean steamers can come six hun- 
dred miles up the Yangtse to Hanyang, Hankow, and 
Wuchang, the three centers of China's new industrial 
civilization. Here are the government iron and steel- 









1 RfiHB 1 m. 
L ^Bi frag 




lipf 


jPT^ajSHV ^ ! yjflKaHM|^B > V 



MTSSTON ARIES TRAVELING TN WEST CHINA 




A MORNING CONGREGATfON AT HANYANG 



THE CHANCE IN CHINA 157 

mills, the arsenal and gun-works, the smokeless-powder 
factories, the brick-kilns and rolling-mills, the water- 
front, the docks with the warships of many nations at 
anchor. It was not until 1893 that Rev. Joseph S. Adams 
removed from the East China Mission to Hanyang. After 
conference with representatives of other denominations, 
there was assigned to the mission a territory a hundred 
and fifty miles long and one hundred miles wide, contain- 
ing a population of five millions. 

Fruits of Labors. In these four fields the mission- 
aries have been building up with infinite care and patience 
a Chinese Christian Church. What are the fruits of their 
labors? In 1862, after twenty-six years, there were 
ninety-nine Chinese Baptist church-members connected 
with the missions of Northern Baptists. Twenty years 
later the number had risen to one thousand and eighty- 
two. In 1902, there were two thousand, eight hundred 
and thirty-nine. Ten years later, in 1912, there were 
numbered in these Chinese Baptist churches, six thou- 
sand and seventy-one members. This shows a larger 
numerical gain in the last ten years than in the preceding 
twenty. The contributions of the same Chinese Baptist 
churches show an equally encouraging increase. In 1862, 
members of Chinese churches connected with the mission, 
gave $59.56, or sixty cents each. In 1882 the aggregate 
was $778.79, or seventy-two cents per capita. In 1902 
the contributions were $2,987, or one dollar and five 
cents per capita. In 1912 the amount was $8,167, or one 
dollar and thirty-four cents per capita. 

Comparison with Work of Other Denominations. 
While the gains are both full of encouragement and an 



158 FOLLOWING THE SUNRISE 

evidence of the thorough work done by a widely scattered 
and often depleted band of missionaries, yet there is 
another side to the question that ought not to be lost sight 
of. Three other denominations doing missionary work 
in the same period and under similar conditions can show 
results even more encouraging. The Congregationalists 
entered the field eleven years l^ter than the Northern 
Baptists, and had, in 1911, eleven thousand members, as 
against five thousand, two hundred and fifteen. The 
Presbyterians, entering ten years later, had twenty- 
one thousand, three hundred and nine members; the 
Methodists, thirty thousand, one hundred and ninety-one. 
The missionary forces of the four denominations in 1911 
were : Northern Baptists, one hundred and twenty-three ; 
Congregationalists, one hundred and thirteen ; Methodists, 
two hundred and forty-one ; and Presbyterians, two hun- 
dred and seventy-four. If we compare the adherents in 
each case, the Christian community ministered to by these 
four missions, and not merely the church-membership, we 
shall have, perhaps, a fairer comparison. The Baptist 
constituency numbers thirteen thousand, eight hundred 
and twenty-eight; the Congregationalists, thirteen thou- 
sand, nine hundred and twenty-seven; the Methodists, 
fifty-three thousand, three hundred and thirteen; the 
Presbyterians, sixty-seven thousand, nine hundred and 
thirty-nine.* 

Education an Aid to Evangelism. Can we discover 
any reason for the more bountiful harvests enjoyed by 
the brethren of other churches? In some cases their 

* See World Atlas Christian Missions, p. 87. 



THE CHANCE IN CHINA 



iS9 



work has been more centralized and less scattered than 
that of the Baptists; in some cases, perhaps, better 
equipped and more adequately supported. But in regard 
to the two denominations having the greatest accessions, 
there has been a difference in emphasis. The Presby- 

1862 1872 18.82 18^92 19J)2 1912 

lU 1111111111111111111.1111111111111111111.111111111 Jlu 



6(HPerMember 



72<rPer Member 



$10 5 Per Member 



$1.34 Vet Member 



Increase in Gifts of Chinese Baptist Christians 

L 



160 FOLLOWING THE SUNRISE 

terian Church, by its early realization of the necessity for 
well-equipped, adequately manned schools of high grade, 
has been able to raise up able leaders among the Chinese 
themselves. It has worked on the theory that the might- 
iest agent of all evangelization is, in the long run, Chris- 
tian education. Foregoing the hopes of immediate re- 
turns, the missionaries sought to multiply their powers a 
hundredfold in the lives of pupils to whom they had 
given the best, highest, most scientific, and thorough 
Christian training possible. The results of this policy 
seem to prove its wisdom. Out of these splendid schools 
have come the men who are winning China for Christ. 
Three of the seven Christian men holding cabinet posi- 
tions in the Chinese Government are the sons of Chris- 
tian pastors, the products of missionary colleges. One 
Presbyterian school, that of Doctor Mateer, turned out 
almost every graduate to become a Christian leader, and 
furnished thirteen Christian professors for the first im- 
perial universities to be organized. It was in the Chris- 
tian college of Shantung that the remarkable movement! 
began under the Rev. Ting Li Mei in 1909, in which one- 
third of the student body turned their backs on official 
preferment, distinction, and large salaries, and volun- 
teered for the gospel ministry. Since then the number of 
groups of such volunteers has risen to one hundred and 
four. And two hundred and fifty new men volunteered 
during 1912. The leaders of New China to-day are the 
products of Christian education. The denominations 
which led in education are leading the nation to-day. 

Baptist Educational Ideals. Baptists, on the con- 
trary, for many years laid their stress upon evangelism. 



THE CHANCE IN CHINA 161 

Such schools as were established were small and poorly 
equipped. " The primary purpose/' said they, " in the 
establishment of schools has been the education of the 
children from Christian homes in order to develop an 
intelligent Christian community, able to read and to use 
the Scriptures." The fruit of this policy was failure to 
develop strong leaders among the Chinese and limitation 
of the growth of the mission to the numbers who could be 
influenced by the direct evangelistic labors of the mis- 
sionaries with such helpers as they could train. Happily, 
there have never been wanting Baptist missionaries who 
clearly saw the inevitable weakness and immaturity that 
must continue in the church whose leaders were men of 
little education and capacity. In the face of indifferent 
support on the part of the denomination, they have built 
up schools that are the nuclei of the splendid system that 
is to be. 

Methodist Emphasis on Woman's Work. The 
Methodist Church, while emphasizing higher education 
in common with the Presbyterian, has laid particular 
stress on the development of its work for women. Their 
missionary bishops were among the first to discover that 
the key to the situation in China is in the hands of the 
women. When Bishop Bashford found, in his tour 
among the churches, that the women members of the 
church were only one-tenth as numerous as were the men, 
he at once began a campaign to secure women evangelistic 
missionaries, the establishment of training schools for 
Bible-women, and of schools of higher education for girls. 
This church was the first to realize the importance of the 
trained Chinese woman physician. The four pioneer 



162 FOLLOWING THE SUNRISE 

women physicians among the Chinese, Hu King Eng, Ida 
Kahn, Mary Stone, Li Bi Cu, were all girls sent to 
America to receive the most thorough college and medical 
training, and then appointed as full medical missionaries 
under the Methodist Woman's Board. 

This enlightened policy of giving full rank and complete 
responsibility and authority to properly equipped Chinese 
women has given the Methodist Church a position of 
leadership in this field. The hospitals presided over by 
these women, the nurses' training schools which they have 
developed, the system of village itineration and evangel- 
ization which they have organized, are great factors in the 
ever- widening spread of Christian truth in the community 
served by the Methodist Church. Taking up the idea of 
the training of Bible-women, the Methodists developed it 
until they had well-organized schools where women might 
receive a thorough training extending over months or 
years to fit them to become real leaders among their own 
people. This policy enormously increases the power of the 
individual missionary to reach thousands whom her own 
personal message could never touch. At first it seems 
much slower and less rewarding than the policy of per- 
sonal itinerating and evangelizing; but the dozen girls 
into whom a missionary has poured her life, so that they 
in turn are filled with the spirit of Christ, can do, not 
twelve, but a hundred times as effective work. More and 
more the native agency must be emphasized, the foreign 
missionary become the leader, inspirer, and servant of 
those whose increase means his own decrease. 

Educational Opportunity in Szechuan. In West 
China the Baptists are facing an educational opportunity 



THE CHANCE IN CHINA 163 

unexcelled in the mission fields of the world. Here, in 
a territory as large as France, with a population even 
larger, the government educational scheme is not strong, 
and Christian schools may take the field. Most of the 
denominations at work in the province have united in one 
system of schools, with one course of study, under one 
superintendent, whose salary is paid jointly. This unified 
system of primary and secondary schools is to be crowned 
by the West China Union University at Chengtu, the 
capital. The university is already organized, is teaching 
its first pupils; but permanent buildings are yet to be 
erected. Baptist missionaries are represented on the fac- 
ulty. The project includes the raising of a half-million 
dollars for buildings and endowment, of which the Bap- 
tists are expected to furnish one-fifth. There are to be 
normal training schools for the training of both men and 
women teachers, a medical school, and it is hoped, ulti- 
mately, a union theological seminary affiliated with the 
university. 

Other Union Schools. Another big educational ad- 
vance is the Union Girls' School in Hangchow, in which 
the Baptist Woman's Society unites with the Presbyte- 
rians, North and South, to form a magnificent girls' 
school that will ultimately become a woman's college. 
In East China there is a general movement for union 
work in education. A commission has been appointed, 
consisting of two members from each of the larger mis- 
sion bodies at work in the province. It is proposed to 
affiliate all schools with the University of Nanking, and 
to correlate all educational work so as to cut out waste 
and duplication and also to strengthen existing schools. 



164 FOLLOWING THE SUNRISE 

In Ningpo the Baptists, Presbyterians, and English 
Methodists are considering union work. The Theological 
Seminary and College at Shanghai represents union be- 
tween Baptists of the North and South — surely a sensible 
step. In this enlarged and strengthened seminary the 
men who are to be the preachers and evangelists of the 
future are being trained. Students in the college and 
seminary are already entering into social service. The 
seminary and college have the same president, Dr. F. 
J. White, who is laying the foundations of a first-class 
Baptist university. 

A Notable Chinese Christian. Tong Tsing En, the 
Chinese dean of the seminary, is the notable man who 
represented Chinese Baptists at Edinburgh.* Twenty 
years ago a Baptist missionary befriended a poor boy, 
and started him on the road to an education. He is now 
this man of weight and influence, both through his wri- 
tings and his public addresses. He is a foremost member 
of the national Executive Committee of the Young Men's 
Christian Association. Professor Tong has had on his 
heart the needs of adult illiterates, to which class a 
majority of the Chinese belong. For their use he has 
prepared a primer and nine little volumes on hygiene, 
ethics, farming, physical geography, reform of customs, 
the country, the relations of man, etc. By a wonderfully 
ingenious adaptation he has made it possible to do this, 
using only six hundred characters instead of the usual 

* World Missionary Conference of 1910 in which representa- 
tives of the Protestant Mission Boards met in a series of meet- 
ings which have been called the most momentous gathering of 
Christians since the day of Pentecost. (See Gairdner, "Echoes 
from Edinburgh, 1910.") 




YATES HALL, SHANGHAI BAPTIST COLLEGE 




CHINESE MEDICAL STUDENTS AT NANKING 



THE CHANCE IN CHINA 165 

three thousand or more. This simplified reading system 
makes it possible for adults to learn to read in a year's 
course what would require a long period of training by 
the old methods. Four of the books are already pub- 
lished. Mr. Tong is pushing the organization of eve- 
ning classes for both men and women. This one man of 
national influence is worth all the money ever expended 
by the Baptists in China. 

Work Among Pastors' Wives. As most of the 
students are married it is possible to do an important 
work in training their wives, who, as pastors' wives, will 
be women of influence in their communities. Lessons in 
the care and feeding of children, and in home nursing and 
sanitation are given, along with simple Bible study and 
preparation for Sunday-school work. Mrs. Mabee re- 
cently appealed to women in the homeland to supply 
soap, talcum powder, gauze, absorbent cotton, and the 
like, to use in teaching these women. 

Ashmore Theological Seminary. The other theo- 
logical school is located at Swatow. It is a memorial to 
that apostolic missionary, William Ashmore, Sr. The 
splendid building and the land were both the gifts of 
Doctor Ashmore's family. " He, being dead, yet speak- 
eth" in the work that was dearest to his heart, the prep- 
aration of men to preach the gospel. Recently fifteen 
men from the seminary started out for a ten days' evan- 
gelistic campaign. They divided into three bands and 
went through hundreds of villages, preaching and selling 
books and speaking to thousands. Another campaign was 
conducted in Chaochowfu, the prefectural city. The 
party of forty-two, including seminary and academy 



166 FOLLOWING THE SUNRISE 

students, missionaries, and colporters, was given half- fare 
on the railway for the ride of thirty miles. Every shop 
was visited, thousands of copies of literature sold, and 
thousands of people stirred by the Christian speaking and 
singing. This Salvation Army method made a great im- 
pression, brought out a favorable editorial in the daily 
paper, and inspired the students with the spirit of aggres- 
sive evangelism. 

Work of Chinese Evangelists. With the establish- 
ment of the republic, opportunities for wide-spread evan- 
gelism were opened, undreamed of as a possibility a few 
years ago. The Chinese church itself is developing won- 
derful leaders of this work. When Pastor Ting Li Mei, 
who has been called the Moody of China, came to Hang- 
chow two years ago, in one meeting over one hundred and 
eighty persons professed conversion, and fifty students 
dedicated themselves to the ministry. A woman evan- 
gelist of apostolic fervor and beauty of character is Miss 
Dora Yu. She believed that God had called her to speak 
for him. With the shyness of a Chinese woman, in re- 
gard to public speaking, she prayed that if this were his 
will, God would send inquirers to her house. For some 
time she continued to speak to the many who came to her 
in answer to this prayer. Gradually she gained confi- 
dence for a wider work. She speaks several Chinese dia- 
lects and perfect English. For several years now she has 
spoken not only among the Baptist churches, but in great 
interdenominational meetings, to both men and women. 
" It is marvelous," says Mr. Foster, " while woman is still 
a chattel in China, to see a slight, little Chinese woman so 
speak of the holiness of God and of his love in Christ that 



THE CHANCE IN CHINA 167 

strong men break down and weep, and confess sins, and 
make restitution, and make up old quarrels, and there- 
after show a wholly different spirit in their living." When 
she spoke before the boys of the boarding-school in Kit- 
yang the entire school confessed Christ as Saviour and 
Lord. Twenty of them desire to become preachers. 

Medical Work. There are eight hospitals and five 
dispensaries connected with Baptist missions in China, 
and a medical staff of twenty, of whom eight are women. 
At Hanyang, Kityang, Huchow, and Swatow, there are 
women's hospitals, or wings of general hospitals. In 
Swatow Dr. Anna K. Scott, now seventy-five years old, 
is in charge of the hospital. This wonderful woman has 
for years kept this hospital open and maintained her 
classes for the training of Chinese nurses, when she was 
the only physician in the hospital. Her granddaughter, 
Dr. Mildred Scott, has now gone to her aid. There is no 
greater need in China than the reenforcement and en- 
largement of hospital work among women and children, 
the most suffering and neglected classes in China. For 
years the Josephine Bixby Hospital, at Kityang, was 
unable to secure a woman physician ; and now there is a 
new hospital and a trained nurse in Huchow, but no 
physician ready. Are there not, somewhere in the United 
States, trained medical women who will give themselves 
to this beautiful work? 

Baptists are entering into union medical work in 
Nanking with Presbyterians, Disciples of Christ, and 
Methodists. 

Opportunity Among the Hakkas. A hospital at 
Hopo is a pressing need. The people are so eager to have 



168 FOLLOWING THE SUNRISE 

a hospital that they have gone about and secured contri- 
butions of two thousand dollars (gold) toward the hos- 
pital building. For three years now they have made their 
appeal in vain for a physician and for a building. Bap- 
tists cannot expect them to wait indefinitely, and must be 
prepared either to meet the needs of this strategic center 
of Hakka work, or to turn oyer the field to others 
who will meet half-way this evidence of interest and 
generosity. 

Insufficiency of Equipment. When one thinks of 
Doctor and Mrs. Lesher, of Chaoyang, both fully trained 
physicians, trying to do medical work with neither hos- 
pital or dispensary, of Doctor Eubank trying alone to 
carry on the heavy hospital work at Huchow, and of 
Doctor Scott alone for years to shoulder the burdens at 
Swatow, the tremendous needs of the medical service 
become apparent. One-third of the hospital expenditures 
are now raised on the field, and the work will become 
increasingly self-supporting, if just now it can be prop- 
erly begun. " One physician and one evangelist cannot 
cope successfully with a population of two millions of 
people," says Mr. Wellwood, of West China. 

A New Macedonian Call. While not one of the 
largest Christian bodies in China, the Baptists are grow- 
ing rapidly, and are face to face w T ith marvelous possi- 
bilities. The converts of the Northern and Southern 
Baptists number 13,200, and during the last three years 
have been growing at the rate of a thousand a year. 
These poor Chinese Christians gave more than two dol- 
lars each in 1912 for the evangelization of China. There 
are, all told, 278,628 Protestant Christians in China. The 



THE CHANCE IN CHINA 169 

church is doubling once in seven years. This infant 
church will need, for a generation, the help of the Chris- 
tians of the West, if it is to win China for Christ. The 
multitudes of the ignorant must be schooled, millions of 
Bibles circulated, and the leaders trained and enlightened. 
In her stupendous task the Chinese church, as though 
Christ himself besought, beseeches us for Jesus' sake to 
come over and help her. Such an opportunity can never 
dawn again. The hour has struck for the most mo- 
mentous advance of Christianity since Paul crossed into 
Macedonia. Will the Church, by prayer and faith and 
gifts of men and money, rise equal to the opportunity? 
Or will Christ once more weep over the cities of rich 
America as he did over Jerusalem? 



Facts About China 

Population 430,000,000 

Number of missionaries 5J44 

Number of cities and towns with resident 

missionary 527 

Number of cities and towns unoccupied 1,444 

Percentage of cities and towns occupied 26% 

Four-fifths of provinces of Kan-su, Yun-nan, Kuei-chow, and 
Kwang-si absolutely unreached. 

Within 140 miles of Canton are three counties with 10,000 
villages, averaging 250 inhabitants, where no missionary or 
Chinese preacher has ever set foot. 

The boat population, numbering millions, is without workers. 

Aboriginal tribes of the southwest, numbering 6,000,000, almost 
wholly untouched. 



170 FOLLOWING THE SUNRISE 

Chinese Protestant Christians 324,890 

Average number of population to each mis- 
sionary 83,000 

Average number to each medical missionary 1,400,000 

Medical missionaries 308 

Contributions of Chinese Christians for 

church work $320,900.62 

Within three and one-half years 85 per cent of opium traffic 
has been destroyed. 

Three of the members of the cabinet are Christians. 
One-fifth of the members of Parliament are Christians. 
The China Inland Mission has 1,000 missionaries. 



Baptist Educational Institutions in China 

Ashmore Theological Seminary, Swatow, China. W. Ashmore, 
D. D., president; J. M. Foster, D. D., Rev. G. H. Waters, 
and native teachers. 

The seminary is the outgrowth of the preachers' classes held 
by the late Doctor Ashmore. The building, with its site, was a 
gift from Doctor Ashmore and his son. About thirty are now 
in attendance. The new building, opened in 1907, occupies a 
commanding site overlooking the Bay of Swatow. 

Swatow Woman's Bible Training School, Swatow, South China. 
Miss Edith G. Traver and native teachers. 

About forty women are trained here annually, some of whom 
go out as Bible-women, teachers, and matrons. Wives of students 
at the seminary will share the advantages of this school, for 
which a new building is now being provided. 

Shanghai Baptist Theological Seminary. F. J. White, D. D. 
(American Baptist Foreign Mission Society), president; 
Rev. E. F. Tatum, Rev. James B. Webster (Southern Bap- 
tist Convention), and native faculty. 



THE CHANCE IN CHINA 17* 

Rev. Horace Jenkins, D. D., for many years conducted the 
theological school for East China at Shaohsing. In 1908 this 
was merged into the union institution at Shanghai. The college 
and seminary occupy twenty-seven acres of ground along the 
Whangpoo River, just below Shanghai. 

Theological Training School, Chengtu, West China. 

After the death of Mr. Salquist, who had been in charge, this 
school was removed to Chengtu, where our mission now co- 
operates with other denominations in theological instruction. 

Shanghai Baptist College. Rev. F. J. White, D. D. (American 
Baptist Foreign Mission Society), president; F. C. Mabee, 
M. A., C. H. Westbrook, Jr., Miss L. J. Dahl, and native 
faculty. 

This, our first college in China, graduated its first class in 1913. 
Foundations are being laid for an institution of true scholarly 
spirit and aim. The college occupies the same compound, and 
has the same president as the theological seminary. 

West China Union University, Chengtu, West China. Rev. J. 
Taylor, D. S. Dye, representing the American Baptist For- 
eign Mission Society. 

The Friends Foreign Mission Association of Great Britain, 
the Boards of the Methodist Church of Canada and the Methodist 
Episcopal Church of the United States, and our Society cooperate 
in this institution. The preparatory school was opened in 1909. 

University of Nanking, Nanking, East China. N. W. Brown, 
M. D., Rev. C. S. Keen, representing the American Baptist 
Foreign Mission Society. 

Methodists, Presbyterians, Disciples of Christ, and Baptists 
cooperate in this promising institution, which has nearly five 
hundred students. Doctor Brown is an instructor in the medical 
department, and Mr. Keen is dean of the language school for 
missionaries. 



172 FOLLOWING THE SUNRISE 

South China Baptist Academy, Swatow, China. Rev. R. T. 
Capen, principal; Rev. A. H. Page. 

Work of both academic and college grades is now being de- 
veloped on the South China field. The boys are applying them- 
selves with intensity to the mastery of the higher branches of 
Western learning. 

Wayland Academy, Hangchow, China. P. R. Moore, principal. 

Since the establishment of Wayland in 1900, it has enjoyed the 
favor of the Chinese of Hangchow, and the sons of some of 
the leading gentry are receiving their education there. 

Munroe Academy, Suifu, China. Rev. I. B. Clark, principal; 
C. L. Foster. 

Schools of modern and Christian learning are in the first 
stages of formation in West China; but all the missions have 
adopted a uniform system of grading, which will lead to effective 
and harmonious development of the school system. 

Swatow Girls' School, Swatow, South China. Miss Maude E. 
Cruff. 

This high grade school has recently added a new building to 
its equipment. It has over eighty pupils. 

Hangchow Union Girls' School. Miss Mary A. Nourse, Miss 
Martha Daisy Woods, representing the Woman's Baptist 
Foreign Missionary Societies. 

This school represents the consolidation of the three schools 
formerly conducted by the Presbyterian Board, North, the 
Presbyterian Board, South, and the Baptist Society, North. 
The union was put into effect February, 1912, and the school 
opened with an enrolment of 147. Although the aim is to do 
only high school, normal, and college work, yet for the present 
primary and grammar school pupils are received. Negotiations 



THE CHANCE IN CHINA 173 

have been opened for the purchase of a new site for the school, 
and it is expected that the initial capital will soon be required 
for a site and school buildings. 



China Baptist Publication Society, Canton, South China. R. 
E. Chambers, D. D., Rev. Jacob Speicher, general secretaries. 
The Society was formed in 1899 as an independent organization, 
but its property is now owned jointly by the Foreign Mission 
Board of the Southern Baptist Convention and the American 
Baptist Foreign Mission Society, the press being conducted 
under the management of a Board of Directors representing the 
missionaries of the two societies and the Chinese constituency. 



Bibliography 

Broomhall, The Chinese Empire. New York, Revell, 1907. 

A general and missionary survey that will give the modern 
data by provinces. 

Headland, China's New Day. Central Committee on United 
Study of Missions, 1912. 
A study of events that have led to its coming. 
Brown, The Chinese Revolution. New York, Student Volunteer 
Movement, 1912. 

Burton, The Education of Women in China. New York, Revell, 

1911. 
Ross, Changing Chinese. New York, Century Company, 1912. 

The conflict of oriental and Western cultures in China. 
Cantlie, Sun Yat Sen and the Awakening of China. New York, 

Revell, 1912. 

Merriam, History of American Baptist Missions. Chapters XV 

and XVI. 
Missions in China. Boston, American Baptist Foreign Mission 

Society, 1907. 



174 FOLLOWING THE SUNRISE 

China Mission Year Book, 1910-1912. New York, Missionary 
Education Movement. 
Its chapters upon many features touched upon in this chapter 

should be freely consulted. 

World Missionary Conference, 1910 Reports: I, pp. 81-107, Oc- 
cupation. Ill, pp. 64-121, 247, 252, Education. IV, pp. 
38-72. 

Speicher, The Conquest of the Cross in China. New York, 
Revell, 1907. 



IN THE ISLAND EMPIRE 



M 



SOUTHWESTERN PART OF 

JAPAN Omor^ 

Same Scale.as Main Map 




PETERSJBOSTON 



Longitude East from Greenwich 



CHAPTER VI 

IN THE ISLAND EMPIRE 

Transformation of Japan. In all the remarkable 
features of the nineteenth century, none was more 
unbelievably strange than the rebirth of Japan. In 
fifty years she passed from a medieval and feudal 
to a modern and industrial civilization; created a 
constitutional monarchy; introduced railways, tele- 
graph, telephone; established a postal system that 
had a perfected free rural delivery long before we 
attempted one in the United States; organized a pub- 
lic school system, free and compulsory, that developed 
a whole nation of newspaper readers in one genera- 
tion; built up an army and navy that have fought 
successfully two great wars, and revolutionized her 
industrial system by the wholesale introduction of 
steam and electricity in factory production. She 
captured the carrying trade of the Pacific, elevated 
herself out of isolation into a position among the 
great world powers ; provided for the higher educa- 
tion of her youth in government universities, some of 
them numbering from four to nine thousand students, 
introduced the practice of modern medicine into hos- 
pitals, dispensaries, and training schools. In short, 
in the space of a half-century Japan changed the em- 
phasis or reversed the view-point in almost every 

177 



178 FOLLOWING THE SUNRISE 

feature of her national life. Yet there are those who 
think that the Japanese are a bit inclined to be con- 
ceited. 

Perry's Expedition. Every school child to-day 
knows of the great importance of the American ex- 
pedition under Commodore Perry in 1853 in opening 
Japan to intercourse with the modern world. It is 
amusing to note the very different estimate placed 
upon the expedition by contemporaries. The Phila- 
delphia " Ledger " doubted whether there were money 
in the treasury for the Administration to pursue such 
a romantic notion. The Baltimore " Sun/' two days 
before the sailing of the expedition, remarked : " It 
will sail about the same time with Rufus Porter's 
aerial ship " ; and after the sailing insisted on " aban- 
doning this humbug, for it has become a matter of 
ridicule abroad and at home." So little did the great 
newspapers appreciate this great project of American 
statesmanship. London newspapers were not more 
discerning. The London " Times " doubted " whether 
the Emperor of Japan would receive Commodore 
Perry with more indignation or more contempt." The 
London " Sun " said : " For ourselves we look for- 
ward to the result with some such interest as we 
might suppose would be awakened were a balloon to 
soar off to one of the planets under the direction of 
an experienced aeronaut." 

Christianity's Part in the Process. Christianity 
and the Christian missionary will be found wrought 
into the very foundation of these changes. It was 
Guido Verbeck who suggested and helped to or- 



IN THE ISLAND EMPIRE 179 

ganize the imperial embassy which went around the 
world in 1871. Moreover, more than half of the men 
selected by the mikado to make this world survey 
were former pupils of Verbeck. The first Japanese 
dictionary on which were to be based the treaties with 
Western government, was the monumental work of 
another missionary, Doctor Hepburn, who was also 
the pioneer in introducing modern medicine into 
Japan. Of Dr. S. R. Brown it has been said, that he 
was the teacher and inspirer of men who became the 
teachers and inspirers of new Japan. 

A Providential Preparation. In fact, back of the 
apparently sudden opening of Japan to foreign inter- 
course, is a long and thrilling story of providential 
preparation. At a time, for example, when it was a 
capital offense for a Japanese subject to emigrate, 
and when, if a subject, either by shipwreck or acci- 
dent, had been driven away from his native land, he 
might never return home, there were some Japanese 
waifs who were found in captivity to the Indians in 
the Oregon country. They were ransomed by Chris- 
tian men, and since they could not be returned to 
their own home, were sent to China. Here they 
taught the Japanese language to Dr. S. Wells Wil- 
liams, who was thus enabled to become the interpreter 
to Commodore Perry, when the American Navy 
opened Japan to intercourse with the world. 

An Influential Conference. It was this same Chi- 
nese missionary, Doctor Williams, who in 1837 took 
passage for Japan on the American ship " Morrison/' 
in the hope of gaining entrance into that country, 



180 FOLLOWING THE SUNRISE 

only to be driven away by the batteries in Yeddo Bay. 
He and two chaplains of the American Navy talked 
together in 1858 at the one Japanese port open to 
foreigners, the Dutch Settlement at Nagasaki. After 
this conference the two men, believing that the day 
was about to dawn for the planting of Christianity in 
Japan, wrote letters to their Missionary Boards in the 
homeland, urging the sending out of missionaries to 
Japan. As a result of these letters the five pioneer 
missionaries were sent out to Japan: Liggins, Wil- 
liams, Hepburn, Brown, and Verbeck. These reached 
Japan within a few months of one another, and for 
ten years constituted the advance guard of Christian- 
ity. They represented the Protestant Episcopal, the 
Presbyterian, and the Dutch Reformed churches. 

Forerunners in America. An even more remark- 
able preparation for the opening of Japan to Chris- 
tianity was made by a group of Christian women in 
America. A circle of women was accustomed to meet 
to sew and pray for missions in Brookline, Massachu- 
setts. While meeting one day at the home of Mrs. 
William Ropes, their interest, it is said, was attracted 
to Japan by a curiously wrought basket which had 
been brought over in one of Mr. Ropes' ships. As 
the women handled the delicate thing and realized 
that the country where it was made was absolutely 
closed to the gospel of Jesus, their hearts were drawn 
out to pray that Japan might be opened. For years, 
while Japan was fast closed and a price was set on 
the head of one who should be even suspected of har- 
boring a Christian, these far-away American women 



IN THE ISLAND EMPIRE 181 

met regularly to pray for Japan. When they prayed 
they gave gifts to be used in Japan when their prayers 
should be answered. Before the little group had scat- 
tered during the passage of the years, they had paid 
into the treasury of the Congregational missionary 
society, the American Board, over six hundred dol- 
lars designated for Japan. Before the time came 
when the Board could enter the field, this sum had 
amounted, with interest, to four thousand, one hundred 
and four dollars and twenty-three cents. 

Baptist Pioneers. While American Baptists were 
not among the first who sent out missionaries in 1859, 
they had a representative among the marines on Com- 
modore Perry's flagship in 1855, Jonathan Goble by 
name, a real Yankee character. While he was not 
at all the type that one would select for a pioneer 
missionary, it was his absorbing interest in foreign 
missions which had impelled him to join the expedi- 
tion in the hope of gaining an opportunity to look 
over the possibilities of Japan as a mission field. He 
undoubtedly used his shrewd eyes to good advantage, 
and when he returned home with the expedition he 
took with him a Japanese sailor who had been res- 
cued from the sea. This waif, who was later baptized 
in Doctor Goble's home church, at Hamilton, New 
York, was so far as is known the first convert of 
modern Protestant missions to the Japanese. 

The Services of Jonathan Goble. When we next 
hear of him, the carpenter sailor has become Rev. 
Jonathan Goble, and in 1860 has returned to Japan 
with his wife as the first missionary of the American 



182 FOLLOWING THE SUNRISE 

Baptist Free Mission Society, a body organized and 
supported by abolitionists. Although foreigners were 
permitted to reside in the port cities of Japan, anti- 
foreign feeling was still very strong, and it was possi- 
ble to do little open or aggressive Christian work. 
Mr. Goble seems to have worked at his trade while 
making a translation of the Gospel of Matthew into 
colloquial Japanese, the first portion of the New Testa- 
ment to be printed in Japan. The work was neces- 
sarily imperfect and was circulated under difficulties, 
and with a great deal of secrecy. Perhaps Jonathan 
Goble will be longest remembered by his invention 
of the jinrikisha, an institution so interwoven with 
all our associations with Japan that it is difficult to 
believe that it was invented a bare half-century ago by 
an obscure American Baptist missionary. 

Lost at Sea. The Southern Baptists about this 
time sent out two men and their wives, who sailed 
from New York in the " Edwin Forrest " and were 
never heard from again. When the records of the 
kingdom are made plain these sealed orders of the 
King may be understood. Surely, they who went 
down with the ship in some unknown sea were his 
messengers, living or dying, and He who had accepted 
their consecration of life could make their service not 
in vain with the Lord. 

Northern Baptists Enter the Field. In 1872, the 
very year that the antichristian edict boards were 
removed from the street-corners of Japan, the North- 
ern Baptists began their Japan Mission. The Free 
Mission, before alluded to, wound up its affairs and 



IN THE ISLAND EMPIRE 183 

turned over its mission to the Northern Baptists, who 
appointed Rev. Nathan Brown and Rev. Jonathan 
Goble as their first missionaries. The latter termi- 
nated his connection with the mission shortly after- 
ward, so that Doctor Brown is rightly regarded as the 
founder of Baptist work in the Empire. The life-story 
of Nathan Brown is a romance. He was, as we have 
seen, one of the pioneer missionaries in Assam, the 
friend of Judson and of Miles Bronson. 

Doctor Brown in Japan. To this veteran mission- 
ary, after eighteen years in the homeland, there came 
the call from God to go once more as a pioneer to a new 
land and to learn an unknown tongue. Those who be- 
lieved that his genius for language might be of service 
in the opening years of the Japan Mission, little ex- 
pected that this worn veteran, then sixty-six years old, 
would live to see thirteen years of fruitful service in 
Japan. According to the bent of his genius he gave 
himself to the acquisition of the language with an al- 
most uncanny ability. When it is remembered the Jap- 
anese is regarded as perhaps the most difficult language 
in the entire mission field, his accomplishment seems 
little less than miraculous. As soon as his own severe 
canons of scholarship would permit, he began to trans- 
late and to write hymns for the Japanese as he had for 
the Assamese. 

Translation of the New Testament. The crown- 
ing work of his life was the publication in 1879 of the 
first translation of the entire New Testament into 
Japanese. This version, although later superseded in 
popular use by that of the Union Committee, has 



184 FOLLOWING THE SUNRISE 

always held a high position among scholars. Said 
Prof. E. W. Clement, himself a most accomplished 
Japanese scholar: "The version does not enjoy a wide 
circulation, but it is generally acknowledged to be 
clearer, simpler, and more in harmony with the original 
than is the other translation." Is it not a pity that the 
unhappy sectarian divisions of Christendom with re- 
gard to the translation of mooted terms should have 
deprived the infant Japanese church of the full benefit 
of the work of this great translator? 

Death of Doctor Brown. When the old man fell 
asleep in Yokohama in 1886, at the age of seventy- 
nine, he was beloved by the Japanese as one of their 
very own. Like the aged apostle John, with his ever- 
repeated " Little children, love one another," the old 
missionary summed up the passion of his life in one 
reiterated prayer, carved later on his tombstone : " God 
bless the Japanese." 

Women Pioneers. Only two years after the estab- 
lishment of the mission, the Woman's Baptist Foreign 
Missionary Society sent out as its first missionaries 
two women whose names are woven into the very 
heart of the mission: Miss Clara Sands (Mrs. J. C 
Brand) and Miss Anna H. Kidder. A few months 
after coming to Japan Miss Kidder witnessed the 
baptism of the first Japanese woman who is known 
to have made confession of the Christian faith, Uchida 
San, first of a long procession of beautiful Christian 
women in whom lies the hope of the new Japan. 

Miss Kidder's Work. Miss Kidder is one of the 
spiritual assets of the denomination. In the history 



IN THE ISLAND EMPIRE 185 

of the school which she founded she has had part in 
the whole story of woman's education in Japan. It is 
a rather interesting coincidence that the first woman 
missionary in Japan was another Miss Kidder, Miss 
Mary E. Kidder, who in 1869 founded the Ferris 
Seminary for girls in Yokohama. Our Miss Kidder 
was the founder of the Sarah Curtis Home School in 
Tokyo, where she still lives and works. An editorial 
appeared recently in one of the most powerful daily 
newspapers published in Tokyo, which gives some 
idea of the veneration with which Miss Kidder is re- 
garded by the Japanese. The editorial was headed 
; ' The Incarnation of Love/' and proceeded to describe 
an elderly foreign lady in simple dress, who for twenty 
years had been accustomed to leave money with the 
official in the Kanda Ward office in Tokyo, asking 
him to distribute it among the poor. After describing 
Miss Kidder's work in the school, the editorial con- 
cludes : " She was merciful from her youth, and num- 
berless times she gave to the poor by her self-denial. 
. . She is very humble, and avoids social circles; 
she does not speak or preach in public. Even the 
school founded by her has another's name. Only once 
has she gone back to her homeland during these forty 
years. She was once beautiful as a flower, but has 
now frost in her hair. She says : ' I have come to 
love Japan; I do not regret offering my life for the 
loved One.' . . There are so many hypocrites in this 
world that it makes us feel good to know of this 
beautiful story." (The editorial from which this quota- 
tion is made was translated for " Gleanings.") 



186 FOLLOWING THE SUNRISE 

Educational Work of Woman's Boards. The work 
committed to Baptist women in Japan has been 
exceptionally strong. Four boarding-schools for girls 
are maintained: at Tokyo, Yokohama (Kanagawa), 
Himeji, Sendai. There is the Bible Training School 
at Osaka; the kindergartens at Morioka, Tokyo, Kobe, 
Naha, in the Liuchiu Islands; the Kindergarten Train- 
ing School in Tokyo, and boarding and day-schools for 
boys and girls are maintained in Tokyo, Yokohama, and 
Kobe. 

Importance of Schools for Girls. It is rapidly be- 
coming recognized that in Japan, as elsewhere, the 
problem of woman's elevation is fundamental. Hence 
these schools in which there is opportunity for Jap- 
anese girls at close range and for long periods to see 
the Christian life incarnated, are of immeasurable 
importance. It is the peculiar glory of Christianity 
that it cannot be communicated in terms of history, 
exposition, doctrine, creed, or catechism. Like its 
Founder, it must take on flesh and tabernacle among 
men. The social ideals of Christianity are many of 
them revolutionary to Japanese ideals and customs. 
They can become controlling in the nation only as 
they become naturalized in the life of the Japanese 
family. Said a prominent government official : " You 
missionary ladies have done a vastly greater work 
for Japan than you ever dreamed of. Our government 
had no hope of success in establishing girls' schools 
until we were inspired by your successes." The thou- 
sands of women who have had Christian training are 
helping to create that public opinion which has found 




MARY L. COLBY SCHOOL AT KANAGAWA 




KINDERGARTEN AT MORIOKA 



IN THE ISLAND EMPIRE 187 

expression in the new civil code of Japan, in which 
the word concubine does not appear. 

Advantages of the Small Boarding-School. Criti- 
cism of the small family type of school, to which most 
of our girls' boarding-schools in Japan belong, is some- 
times made on the ground of their necessarily high 
cost. But when it is remembered that since Sendai 
was opened but one girl has been graduated without 
open confession of her faith, that in Himeji twenty- 
seven conversions were recorded in one year, and that 
in all of the schools it is the single aim and confident 
expectation that each girl shall be an out-and-out 
Christian, the cost seems not so high. The testimony 
of a leader in a recent senior class is in point. She 
said that long ago she had made a great resolve never 
to become a Christian. She had been in another large 
mission school for a time, and when she came to the 
small Baptist school she was for the first time brought 
into contact with a new atmosphere, an indefinable 
something which the Christian girls had and she had 
not. The Bible too was taught in Japanese instead 
of in English, as heretofore. And this, she said, made 
it more real to her. At last the kindness and evident 
interest of her classmates and the wonderful Christian 
atmosphere of the place brought her to a vital personal 
experience of Christ. 

What Japanese Schoolgirls Do. The work done 
by these Christian schoolgirls in the boarding-schools 
is an inspiration. The girls of the school in Sendai 
conduct fifteen Sunday-schools each Sunday. They 
have a teachers' training class, visit in the homes, and 



188 FOLLOWING THE SUNRISE 

are continually striving to pass on the blessings of 
Christianity to non-Christian people around them. 
Miss Dithridge's students in the Kindergarten Train- 
ing School have opened a " Garden of Love " for poor 
children in one of the crowded quarters of the city. 
In ten days they enrolled fifty neglected children. 
Among Miss Whitman's girls in Tokyo the work is 
done in four Sunday-schools. One of the day pupils 
has a Sunday-school in her own home, with thirty 
children in attendance. The Kanagawa students teach 
in six Sunday-schools. In Himeji there are nineteen 
Sunday-schools in which girls from the boarding- 
school are doing valiant service as teachers. In fact, 
the growth of recent years in Sunday-school work in 
Japan has been due very largely to the work of the 
pupils and graduates of these girls' schools. Sunday- 
school membership is now fourteen thousand, nearly 
three times as great as is the membership of the 
churches. 

Kindergartens as Evangelizing Agencies. The 
kindergarten has proved to be one of the most power- 
ful evangelizing agencies in Japan. It seems to fit the 
genius of the people. The little children open doors 
for Christ that no other hands can set ajar. This fact 
is beginning to find recognition in the homeland also. 
The pastor of one of the largest Baptist churches in 
the United States has recently established a kinder- 
garten in his Sunday-school building during week- 
days. He says that the hundred or more children of 
this kindergarten have already brought many recruits 
into the Sunday-school, and opened many homes to 



IN THE ISLAND EMPIRE 189 

the visits of the Sunday-school missionary that were 
hitherto inaccessible. The Christian kindergarten, 
moreover, has a peculiar field in Japan. There is 
something about it, a power to transform child-life, 
which, according to the frank admission of officials, 
the government kindergartens lack. It is for Ameri- 
can Christians to decide whether they will hold the 
position of preeminence already gained in kindergarten 
work by adequately equipping the schools which they 
have established. No second-grade work in any depart- 
ment will long satisfy the Japanese. 

Story of Baptist Kindergartens. The Baptist kin- 
dergartens have had a wonderful history. The Zenrin 
kindergarten was located by Mrs. Thomson in one of 
the most notorious sections, not only in Kobe, but in 
all southwest Japan. Police protection had to be 
accorded in the beginning. Now the love of the 
transformed neighborhood is its best protection, and 
the courteous Japanese officials who see what the kin- 
dergarten has done are its firmest friends. Here a 
double kindergarten is held, one group coming in the 
morning and another in the afternoon. In addition 
to the kindergarten proper, there are the mothers' 
meetings, the constant visitation in the homes, the 
Friday Club, Mrs. Watanabe's interesting class among 
the older girls, and three Sunday-schools. Mrs. Brand 
opened the Tsukiji kindergarten in Tokyo in a little, 
dark building, crowded on the back of the mission lot 
between servants' quarters, yet she soon had forty-six 
pupils enrolled, and could have had twice that num- 
ber had there been room for them. In Morioka the 



190 FOLLOWING THE SUNRISE 

kindergarten is enlisting support of the leading people 
of the place. Many of these pupils are able to pay 
full tuition, yet are willing to come to this Christian 
kindergarten where the children of government officials 
and the children of the people sit side by side. The 
Morioka kindergarten has done such beautiful things. 
The little ones have gathered flowers for the hospitals, 
made grape-juice to give to the sick at Christmas, 
learned the delights of gardening, and have been led 
by Mrs. Topping's gentle teachings to think of the 
famine sufferers in China. She said that when she 
noted that the Japanese papers made no mention of 
the thousands dying in China, she felt that she could 
not allow to pass the opportunity for enlarging the 
sympathies of the children. It was proposed to them 
that they forego the customary Christmas treat and 
send the money to save the lives of starving Chinese 
mothers and babies. The children entered into this 
with all the eagerness of their loving little hearts. 
But Mrs. Topping could not help being glad when an 
unexpected Christmas box from ladies in Cincinnati 
enabled her to make the usual treat for the children 
at Christmas time. 

Kindergarten Training School. The Kindergarten 
Training School was opened in Tokyo October 2, 1911, 
for the purpose of giving thorough training to Jap- 
anese Christian kindergarten teachers. The school 
was fortunate, not only in its principal, Harriet Dith- 
ridge, but also in the kindergarten director, Ishihara 
San, a cultivated Japanese girl, who had received 
years of training in the best professional schools in 



IN THE ISLAND EMPIRE 191 

the United States. Miss Dithridge has a keen appre- 
ciation of the tremendous importance of this work, and 
a big vision of what these kindergartens can accomplish 
for the future. She says : 

We ought to open new kindergartens in Tokyo. In the 
poor districts they are of inestimable value, and in all 
neighborhoods they are a means of entrance into the 
homes and hearts of the mothers. Some one has said 
that the kindergarten is in Japan what the doctor is to 
India and China. If this be true, and it certainly is, why 
are we Baptists so far behind other denominations in 
recognizing the fact and acting upon it? At present, mis- 
sion kindergartens are far ahead of government kinder- 
gartens educationally, and Japanese teachers and workers 
recognize that fact. Oh, let us strike now, and dot this 
city with kindergartens. Since I have the training school 
girls to help, I ask only ninety dollars a year for the 
teacher's salary in each kindergarten, and for a place in 
which to hold it. How I wish I could make the people at 
home realize the importance of the kindergarten in Japan ! 

Possibilities of the Kindergarten. When one thinks 
of the marvelous possibilities of the kindergarten in 
Japan, of the hospitality of the people toward it, of 
its proved efficiency, and then considers the meager 
equipment and inadequate provision w T ith which the 
Christian church is meeting the opportunity, one is 
reminded of the remark of a Japanese street urchin. 
He had attended a little Sunday-school and playground 
maintained by one of the missions in Tokyo. One of 
the periodic deficits of missionary funds compelled 
the missionaries to shut up the Sunday-school and the 
playground because they could not pay the rent. Half 

N 



192 FOLLOWING THE SUNRISE 

wistfully, the little chap said, " I wonder if Jesus is 
getting poor." 

Educational Opportunity. Except in the kinder- 
garten, there is very little opportunity for primary 
education in Japan. Most people, Christian and non- 
Christian, send their children to the public schools. 
Hence the wide evangelism which formerly took place 
through school children no longer exists. The oppor- 
tunity to-day is in the boarding and secondary schools. 
Here the Christian church is not awake to its oppor- 
tunity. There are only twelve Christian secondary 
schools for boys, and eleven for girls in all Japan. 
Yet, on these and the higher schools depend the hopes 
of the future for the Japanese church. Doctor Schneeder, 
principal of the North Japan College, at Sendai, says: 

The Christian schools have had to compete with a 
splendid system of government education. They have 
been hampered by insufficient support. Yet, in spite of it 
all, the degree of success that Christianity has achieved in 
Japan must be ascribed very largely to the direct and 
indirect work of the Christian schools. 

The Edinburgh Conference report finds that most of 
the able Christian readers of Japan are the products of 
mission schools. The report further shows that these 
schools have powerfully affected the tone of current litera- 
ture in Japan, producing novelists, poets, educators, and 
editors " who have led the way in creating a new litera- 
ture for Japan, a literature that is fast familiarizing the 
whole nation with the best ideals of the West, and the 
influence of which upon national life and character is 
simply beyond calculation." 



IN THE ISLAND EMPIRE 193 

Duncan Academy Takes Advance Step. In view 
of these facts it is encouraging to know that Baptist 
missions in Japan have taken advanced ground in re- 
gard to Duncan Academy, the splendid school for boys 
in Tokyo. On April 10, 1913, a union was formed 
with the Presbyterians, who also have a fine boys' 
school in Tokyo. The higher departments of both 
schools have been united under a faculty composed of 
the teachers from both missions. The Presbyterian 
school has a fine location, with a ten-acre campus, 
beautiful chapel, dormitories, and school buildings. The 
Duncan Academy boys will have the advantages of 
this equipment, and the faculty, made up of teachers 
from the two schools, will be exceedingly strong. 
Both Boards will save expense in the duplication of 
buildings and equipment necessary in building up two 
separate schools. The union school too will have far 
greater prestige and influence among the Japanese. 
The preparatory department of the Baptist Theologi- 
cal Seminary is also cooperating with this union 
higher school. Dean Chiba, of the seminary, Profes- 
sors Tenny, Sone, Sasaki, Yamaguchi, Ishima, and 
Gressitt are teaching in the union school. It is hoped 
that other missions that are maintaining boys' schools 
will join in the project, so that this may be the founda- 
tion for the Christian university which is so sorely 
needed in Japan. There is not a Christian college in 
the country fully equipped to compete with the gov- 
ernment in offering equally advanced and specialized 
courses under the advantages of a moral and Christian 
atmosphere. 



194 FOLLOWING THE SUNRISE 

Theological Seminary. The Baptist Theological 
Seminary at Tokyo is perhaps the most important 
educational enterprise in Baptist missions in Japan. 
It also marks an advance in that it is a union institu- 
tion, made by joining the two theological seminaries 
formerly maintained by the Northern and Southern 
Baptists. The Conference of Japanese Baptists has 
representation on the Board of Trustees equal to that 
granted the two Missionary Boards. If Japanese pas- 
tors are to be leaders, it is absolutely essential that 
they be given the very best advantages during their 
years of preparation for the work of the Christian 
ministry. 

The Islands of the Pendant Tassels. Curving south- 
west from Japan to Formosa stretches the archipelago 
of little islands, known as the Liuchiu, or Pendant 
Tassel Islands. The name signifies that at one time 
they were considered a fringe on the edge of China's 
ample robe of dominion. After some centuries, in 
which the people tried to live at peace with their 
powerful neighbors by paying tribute to both China 
and Japan, the islands were formally annexed by the 
Japanese in 1878. Commodore Perry, in writing of 
his experiences of Japan, said that he had never seen 
people whom he pitied more than these Liuchiu 
islanders, crushed as they had been between two for- 
eign despotisms. Says Doctor Griffis : " Ground be- 
tween the two millstones of their foreign masters and 
the native aristocracy, the Liuchiuans feared the Chi- 
nese, hated the Japanese, and groveled before their 
local rulers." It is interesting to remember that 



IN THE ISLAND EMPIRE 195 

Commodore Perry was presented two inscribed bells 
that had hung centuries before in some Buddhist mon- 
astery, and that the musical chime of one of these still 
rings through the halls of Wellesley College. 

Introduction of Christianity. It was quite natural 
that these isolated islands should be strongholds of 
conservatism and prejudice against foreigners. The 
early introduction of Christianity was attended with 
such difficulties that for forty years no attempt was 
made by any Board to carry the gospel to the half- 
million islanders scattered on these thirty-four islands. 
The pioneer missionary was a Dutchman, sent out by 
a few English naval officers, who had become inter- 
ested in the islands. He met with the most polite 
and stubborn opposition. If he distributed tracts, 
officers were sent to follow him, and with true Jap- 
anese politeness to return to him the tracts in a neat 
little parcel. Even the very money he used was not 
allowed to pass into circulation, but was gathered to- 
gether and put into sacks. When Doctor Bettleheim 
and his family sailed away discouraged, the money 
was dumped on board their vessel in order that the 
Christian contagion might not spread. 

The Success of a Japanese Evangelist. In 1891 the 
Baptist missionary, Rev. R. A. Thomson, of Kobe, be- 
came deeply stirred over the neglected condition of 
the islands. He succeeded in interesting a Christian 
tourist, Mrs. Alexander Allan, of Scotland, to make a 
donation with which to begin the work. A Japanese 
evangelist was sent, and at the end of the first year 
he had baptized eleven converts and organized the 



196 FOLLOWING THE SUNRISE 

first Baptist church at Naha. Since that day a steadily 
growing work has been maintained by the Japanese 
pastor and evangelists. There are now eight hundred 
members, two hundred and twenty-five of whom were 
baptized in 1912. The people seem thirsting for God. 
The Christians go, as did the early disciples, from 
house to house, carrying the glad tidings. One of the 
evangelists, Mr. Nishihara, who had received a govern- 
ment pension of 2,000 yen ($1,000), used it all to buy 
the land and build a chapel in a town where a new 
church was to be planted. The first year after that he 
baptized sixty-eight believers into the tiny church. 

Activity of Liuchiuan Women. " In Liuchiu," says 
Miss Lavinia Mead, " the wonderful ingathering of the 
past years has been in large degree the fruit of the 
faithful efforts of the women of the Church. Almost 
all of these women have worked without salary as 
volunteer helpers. In this they have caught inspira- 
tion from the work of that indefatigable Bible-woman, 
Mrs. Haragachi, who has led them to the true source 
of the inspiration for service." One of these women 
was the wife of the pastor mentioned above. She was 
so eager to get Bible training that, with the full con- 
sent of her husband, she exiled herself from her family 
for two years of training in the Osaka Bible School. 
On the recent return of Mrs. Nishihara to her happy 
husband and children, she sent back to fill her place 
in the school a bright and energetic young woman 
from the islands, who expects to continue in this apos- 
tolic succession of Bible-women who are bearing the light 
into the Liuchiu Islands, 





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^KB*MZm£mL — u^i,^^^ • ■ 



THE NEW GOSPEL SHIP IN JAPAN 




WASEDA DORMITORY STUDENTS AT TOKYO 



IN THE ISLAND EMPIRE 197 

Unique Work on the Inland Sea. In one respect 
surely the Baptists may claim preeminence in mis- 
sionary work in Japan. They may not have the most 
numerous body of believers, nor the largest and best 
equipped schools, but they have the most picturesque, 
useful, and best managed evangelistic mission in 
Japan, in the " Fukuin Mam," the gospel ship of the 
Inland Sea. What could be more picturesque than 
the setting of the mission in the famed Inland Sea of 
Japan, a land-locked archipelago, between the large 
southern islands of the Empire? Travelers grow weary 
trying to depict the beauties of this sea, with its clus- 
tering wooded islands, its mountain backgrounds, its 
quaint little villages perched on hilly summits, its 
swift tides, and slow sailing-craft. Up and down the 
length of this inland sea, daring all the dangers of the 
leaping tides that swirl through the narrow channels, 
goes the white-winged " Fukuin Maru " with her mis- 
sionary skipper, Captain Luke Bickel, and her Jap- 
anese crew. 

Parish of the " Fukuin Maru." Surely no mission 
could be more useful. Here is a heavy population 
scattered on many hundreds of islands, practically un- 
touched by the impact of Christianity when Captain 
Bickel began his first cruise in 1899. These people in 
isolated hamlets could be reached only by boat or by 
rough mountain paths from village to village. They 
represented the intrenched conservatism of the Jap- 
anese. 

Reaching Japan's Rural Population. The " Fukuin 
Maru " has been one of the agencies which have brought 



198 FOLLOWING THE SUNRISE 

into clear relief what is now recognized as the strategic 
opening in Japan, Christian work among the country 
people. Because of the restrictions that confined 
foreign residence to the treaty port, it has quite nat- 
urally come about that most of the missionary forces 
were concentrated from early days. Sixty per cent 
of all Protestant missionaries are found in the eight 
largest cities, yet three-fourths of the population of 
Japan is found outside the cities, in small towns and 
farm-villages. If Christianity is to permeate Japanese 
society, the laborers, the fishermen, the farmers, and 
the artisans must be reached. When Captain Bickel 
undertook his labors in these untouched fields the 
outlook was believed to be so discouraging that he 
himself said that he was willing and prepared to work 
for ten years without apparent results. The unex- 
pectedly encouraging fruit of his labors has strength- 
ened the courage of all those missionaries in Japan 
who believe that the next advance must be in the coun- 
try districts. 

The Guiding Principles of Captain Bickel's Work. 
In speaking of the " Fukuin Maru " recently, a mis- 
sionary of another denomination, himself an evangel- 
istic missionary of note, said that he regarded the 
work of Captain Bickel as the most significant piece 
of evangelism being done to-day in Japan, the best 
organized and most promising of permanent results. 
That this great tribute was not unadvised will become 
evident on studying the fixed principles upon which 
that work was founded. It has been farthest from 
that type of evangelism which consists of merely itin- 



IN THE ISLAND EMPIRE 199 

erating the country, speaking to the drifting crowds 
which curiosity brings together; that casual seed-sow- 
ing which invites the birds of the air to snatch up the 
precious seed. Captain Bickel set for himself five 
principles : Comity, thoroughness, democracy, organi- 
zation, responsibility. (1) He built on no man's 
foundation, and never entered a location in which 
another denomination was at work. (2) He planned 
to visit every village of every island entered, with 
such persistence that entrance should be obtained. 
(3) In presenting Jesus Christ he recognized no dis- 
tinctions of caste or class. (4) He divided the islands 
into groups, stationed an evangelist in each group, 
and made him responsible for all work carried on in 
the group. j(5) He limited rigidly the number of paid 
workers in each group, and steadily sought to throw 
the responsibility for lay evangelism upon each mem- 
ber of the Church. 

Originality of These Principles. Some of these prin- 
ciples were contrary to precedent and custom. For 
example, it has been a missionary custom to await an 
invitation for opening before beginning new work. 
Quicker results could have been secured in this way, 
but not that broad foundation for the transformation 
of an entire community or province. Again, the re- 
ligious training of the Japanese had led them to regard 
all religious activity as professional, hence it is very 
difficult to make the individual church-member realize 
that he is to be a sharer in the work of spreading the 
gospel. " Believers they thought should be believers, 
and teachers be teachers." 



200 FOLLOWING THE SUNRISE 

Efficacy of the Principles. These principles are 
proving their soundness for a much wider application 
than that made by Captain Bickel. The splendid 
method too, of the mission is an inspiration and a chal- 
lenge to all evangelistic missionaries. Captain Bickel 
has an orderly sequence of topics to be presented, a 
selection of truths to be emphasized. God, man, sin, 
the Saviour, are the four great truths emphasized by 
such orderly presentation that as the evangelist fol- 
lows up his first message by his second the mind of 
the hearer is prepared to receive it. Why should there 
not be a science of evangelism? Not only is there this 
orderly presentation of the message, there is also a 
splendid system of following it up by letters, litera- 
ture, and visits to scattered disciples that keeps up a 
close, personal touch with the whole field. This is 
not working in the dark, but in the light of a method 
as well considered as is that which the best business 
house demands of its employees, but which the King's 
business, alas, does not always secure. 

Fascinating Development of the Work. How fas- 
cinating has been the development of the work ! The 
stanch sailing-vessel, the gift of Mr. R. S. Allan, the 
Scotch ship-builder, in memory of his mother, has been 
replaced by a larger steam vessel. This shortens the 
time of the trips and enlarges the field of the visits. 
There is also a little steam launch which can penetrate 
where the larger vessel cannot go, and which does 
away with the necessity of long mountain tramps to 
reach the more isolated hamlets. Then there is the 
little " Fukuin Maru, Number Two," built in Japanese 



IN THE ISLAND EMPIRE 201 

style and used in colportage work. Her very building 
is the outward evidence of a miracle-working conver- 
sion. The Japanese colporter, who uses the little ves- 
sel to go in advance into every section whither the 
gospel ship itself will come later, is a living letter, 
breathing the power of the living gospel. 

The Regeneration of Hirata San. Hirata San was a 
thorough reprobate, the coxswain of the crew of the 
u Fukuin Maru." " His crafty eyes/' says Captain 
Bickel, " looked straight in the direction of the eight 
cardinal points of the compass all at once. He had 
one virtue; he was cheerfully, openly evil. He gam- 
bled, stole, and lied by preference, drank heavily, and 
loved to fight. All this he did — and worse. Man has 
a soul, they say; we tried to find his for two years, 
but never got a glimpse. . . Then something hap- 
pened. He began to inquire, but how? Ignorant to 
the extent of not being able to read or write the sim- 
ple Japanese Kana alphabet, morally crooked in all 
his ways — was there any hope of his being changed? 
We did not believe him sincere then, nor did we later 
when he professed faith in Christ. We refused bap- 
tism, but there was a change, a change at last, slight 
indeed, but growing in force continually, until the 
man became completely new. No figure of speech, no 
saintly cant is this, but hard, solid fact. He was 
changed from a gambling, lying, thieving, quarrel- 
some, ignorant tool of the Evil One into a true child 
of God. He pored over the old Book of books in every 
spare moment. And so we left him to God's Spirit. 
The harsh hands became gentle, the pride of other 



202 FOLLOWING THE SUNRISE 

days became loving humility that would not be re- 
fused, the shrewdnes of evil times turned to a re- 
markable thoughtfulness and resourcefulness in find- 
ing ways of service. " So the new Hirata San, like 
the man whom the people found clothed and in his 
right mind at the feet of Jesus, goes everywhere tell- 
ing his own friends how great things the Lord has 
done for him and how he has had compassion on him. 

Magnitude of the Work. Four hundred towns and 
villages are now on the ship's visiting list. These 
are divided into four groups, with a Japanese convert 
in charge of each. There are forty organized Sunday- 
schools, two of them held in Buddhist temples, and 
one in the temple of the sailors' god, Ebeshi Sama. 
There are two kindergartens, many mothers' meet- 
ings, night-schools, week-day Bible classes, traveling 
libraries, and a monthly magazine, which goes to the 
scattered Christians hidden in the tiny villages. 

Stories of Individual Converts. Oh, the life stories 
hidden away among these island Christians ! There 
was the honored school principal, for example, who 
was dismissed from his position and disowned by his 
family because of his baptism. Then followed weeks 
in which none would give him work. One morning 
he cheerfully took a pedler's pack on his back and 
started out to sell paper, pencils, and the like, preach- 
ing as he went. He is now in the theological sem- 
inary in Yokohama, a tried and true disciple. Then 
there is old " Pilgrim's Progress," the seventy-year- 
old jinrikisha puller, who keeps up an old people's 
society and a book society, and visits from house to 



IN THE ISLAND EMPIRE 203 

house telling the good tidings. There are the man 
and his wife on the barren hillside farm who have 
set aside their best field for the " Sunday field/' whose 
products belong to the gospel and and its work. There 
are the faithful Bible-women, who journey from vil- 
lage to village by boat in all weathers. They often go 
ten miles on Sunday in order to hold a Sunday-school 
class. Then there are the members of the crew of the 
" Fukuin Maru," who, after a hard day's work, walk 
many miles to conduct a neighborhood prayer-meeting. 

A Living Epistle. Captain Bickel says that, being 
very tired one night, he asked one of his crew, a 
recent convert, to take a Bible to a certain man. He 
replied, saying, "No, no, captain; he does not need 
that." " But why not?" " Because it is too soon. 
That is your Bible, and thank God it is now mine, but 
it is not his Bible." "What do you mean by that?" 
" Why, simply that he has another Bible ; you are his 
Bible; he is watching you. As you fail, Christ fails. 
As you live Christ, so Christ is revealed to him." No 
wonder that Captain Bickel adds : u I did not sleep 
that night. I knew it, in a way, of course ; but to say, 
' As you live, so Christ lives in that man's soul, in that 
house, in that village, in four hundred villages/ God 
help me ! " 

Opportunities for Advance. Forty villages which 
cannot be entered for lack of men and money are call- 
ing for teachers, Sunday-schools, and chapels. Think 
of this in a location where ten years ago there was 
not a single friendly village. Another island group, 
the Goto Islands, must be permanently opened, and 



204 FOLLOWING THE SUNRISE 

for them additional helpers must be secured. The 
only limitation to the work is that set by the limitation 
in the faith and vision of the home Church. 

A New Spirit Stirring: The Tokyo Tabernacle. A 
splendid spirit is stirring in Baptist missions in Japan 
that needs only determined and adequate backing on 
the part of the churches at home to enable them to 
take the part in the spiritual emancipation of Japan 
which is in keeping with Baptist resources. There is 
the Tokyo Tabernacle, for example, under the inspir- 
ing leadership of the Axlings. Here are developed all 
the agencies used by a successful institutional church 
in the homeland. There are night-schools, young 
men's and women's Bible classes, with more than one 
hundred enrolled, mothers' meetings, a kindergarten, 
a nursery, a monthly magazine, nightly evangelistic 
services, frequent institutes for training the Christian 
workers. The night-schools, with an enrolment of 
three hundred students, are yielding a surplus revenue 
to help in supporting the other work. The afternoon- 
school is nearly self-supporting so far as current ex- 
penses go. Japanese supporters contributed more 
than a third of all the money needed to maintain the 
varied lines of work centered at the Tabernacle. In 
the kindergarten nursery fifty little children, whose 
mothers work in the factories, are beautifully cared 
for. This work began on the solicitation of a city 
official, and has proved the means of securing entrance 
to many families. The children's club enrolls one 
hundred and fifty older children. Between five and 
six hundred different people are regular attendants 



IN THE ISLAND EMPIRE 205 

at one or more of the weekly services at the Taber- 
nacle, and a larger number in addition of those who 
occasionally come when there is some special service 
to attend. 

Burning of the Tabernacle. When the cable flashed 
the news of the total destruction of the Tabernacle by 
fire last February it seemed a terrible calamity. But 
already it is evident that the fire will only result in an 
enlarged work. Many Japanese friends came forward 
with pledges toward rebuilding, and at the time of 
the Northern Baptist Convention, in Detroit, a move- 
ment was inaugurated by the divinity alumni of the 
University of Chicago to provide $30,000 for a new 
plant. A considerable portion of this has already been 
pledged. 

Student Dormitories at Waseda. Another exceed- 
ingly interesting development is that of the student 
dormitories in connection with Waseda University in 
Tokyo, where are gathered eight thousand students. 
When the building was opened Count Okuma, the 
founder, was represented by his son, who gave a con- 
gratulatory address. The idea back of the dormitory 
is to make a Christian home for Christian students 
who are attending the university. The building has 
become headquarters for the Christian activities in 
this great university. Meetings are held in the large 
assembly hall, some of them addressed by professors 
in the university. The Japanese authorities are so 
pleased with the possibilities of the dormitory for 
university men that they have asked Mr. Benninghoff 
to open one for middle-school boys. The conduct of 



206 FOLLOWING THE SUNRISE 

affairs is largely by self-government. A fine spirit of 
brotherhood and personal consecration is developing. 
Since the dormitory opened seven of its students have 
united with Christian churches. One of the conditions 
for membership in the dormitory is membership in 
the Waseda Christian Association. This organiza- 
tion, which has grown directly out of the work of 
the dormitory and the majority of whose officers and 
committees are from among its members, has now a 
membership of over a hundred Waseda students and 
eight members of the faculty. Through the Bible 
classes, prayer-meetings, student conferences, pleas- 
ant social life, and intimate Christian fellowship, a 
new moral tone is being made in the university. The 
opening of this dormitory points out a line of work 
which has very great possibilities for good. With the 
cordial approval of Japanese authorities, Christian 
hostels could be erected in connection with government 
universities and high schools for both boys and girls. 

Dormitory for Business Men. Under somewhat 
similar lines a dormitory work has been carried on 
by Doctor Dearing for business men in Yokohama. 
It now has twenty-eight boarders, and is developing a 
fine institutional and club life. There are thousands 
of Christian young men in business in the city who 
are wholly cut off from all Christian or home influ- 
ence. This boarding-house is in no sense a charity, 
but is wholly self-supporting. It affords an oppor- 
tunity to bring missionaries into close and helpful 
contact with young men who may become great 
powers for good. Men from the student dormitory 



IN THE ISLAND EMPIRE 207 

from Waseda and from this business dormitory in 
Yokohama have gone off to do evangelistic service on 
Sundays, and in many ways have proved helpful to 
the work of the churches. 

Extent of Unreached Territory. What of the fu- 
ture and the duty of the immediate present? While 
the opening in Japan is not so spectacular in its invi- 
tation as that in China, it may be questioned whether 
there is in the whole world a field making greater de- 
mands on the Christian world than does Japan. Take, 
for example, the Baptist portion of the Sendai field. 
Here are more than six hundred thousand people who 
have, by the consent of all the Christian bodies work- 
ing in Japan, been assigned to American Baptists. If 
they are to be evangelized at all they must look to 
Baptists. The people in this province are widely 
scattered and cannot be reached from populous cen- 
ters. There are one hundred villages of a population 
of from fifteen hundred to nine thousand. The pres- 
ent missionary force is able to visit but fifteen of these 
villages, containing a population of sixty-five thou- 
sand, and this with no great regularity. Again, take 
Mito, in the Ibaraki Province. There are thirteen 
million people in the province, forty thousand of 
whom live in the capital, Mito. In this province there 
are forty-five cities, three hundred and thirty-six 
towns, and two thousand and thirty-three villages. 
Christian workers are located in eleven cities, two 
towns, and thirty-six villages. The entire number of 
places where Christianity has been preached at all is 
seventy-two. There are thirty Christian workers in 
o 



208 FOLLOWING THE SUNRISE 

the province, of whom the Baptists have two mis- 
sionaries, seven paid and one unpaid Japanese work- 
ers. Not five per cent of the population have had 
sufficient Christian instruction to make intelligent be- 
lief possible. Not ten per cent have once heard the 
story of Christ's redeeming love. Is there any con- 
sideration that ought more powerfully to drive Chris- 
tians to their knees than that of the great unused 
power of the Church and the great unmet needs of 
the kingdom? 

Minimum Standard for Efficiency. The Edinburgh 
World Missionary Conference has set as a minimum 
standard for efficient evangelization one missionary to 
each twenty-five thousand of the non-Christian popu- 
lation. With this number of foreign missionaries 
working in cooperation with a very much larger num- 
ber of native evangelists and ministers, it would be 
possible to give every one an adequate opportunity to 
have the gospel presented to him. How does the 
Baptist mission for Sendai, in which it will be remem- 
bered there is no other denomination at work in the 
portion assigned to Baptists, meet the needs of six 
hundred thousand people? There is one ordained 
minister, his wife, and two unmarried women, a total 
of four missionaries. There are twelve Japanese men 
and ten Japanese women who are doing the work of 
preachers or evangelists. If the minimum standard 
set by the Edinburgh Conference were attained there 
would need to be twenty-four missionaries, including 
ministers, their wives, and unmarried teachers, and a 
Japanese staff much larger than the one hundred and 



IN THE ISLAND EMPIRE 209 

thirty-two which a proportional increase of the pres- 
ent inadequate staff would demand. 

Could the Standard Be Met? Doubtless the one 
million, five hundred thousand Baptist communicants of 
the Northern States spent their full share of the half- 
million dollars daily paid into the moving-picture 
shows last year. Since there is one Baptist to every 
sixteen of the population of the United States, their 
bill for moving-pictures would be about nine million, 
three hundred thousand dollars a year. Doubtless, 
too, Baptists bought their full proportion of automo- 
biles, which would cost them fifty million dollars. 
When the spreading of the gospel of Christ becomes 
as important to them as automobiles and as interesting 
as moving-picture shows, they will find that all of 
them, rich and poor, have resources enough to man 
and equip every mission station which the needs of 
the world demand. It has been estimated that an in- 
vestment of fifty million dollars a year on the part of 
the Protestants of the United States would enable 
their Missionary Boards to meet the standard for ef- 
ficient evangelism set by the Edinburgh Conference. 
As Baptists North and South are now giving about one- 
tenth of the foreign mission offering of the United States, 
this would require five million dollars as their share — 
less than a dollar per member ! 

Resources of Northern Baptists. It would be pos- 
sible for the" one million, five hundred thousand Bap- 
tists grouped together in the Northern Baptist Con- 
vention to give the whole five million dollars yearly 
by the contribution of a cent a day from each member. 



210 FOLLOWING THE SUNRISE 

It is perfectly possible, perfectly practicable, perfectly 
necessary if the task is to be done. Baptists were given 
a giant's size, as some one has said, that they might 
do a giant's share. There is many a little Benjamin 
of a denomination that is putting them to shame. 
There are the United Presbyterians, with their aver- 
age of two dollars and forty-eight cents per member 
for foreign missions; the Reformed Church in Amer- 
ica, with its one dollar and seventy-seven cents per 
capita; the Adventists, with one dollar and thirty-nine 
cents per capita ; and Northern Baptists with seventy-four 
cents ! And this is their contribution toward their share 
in bringing six hundred million of the heathen world to 
Christ. It would be ludicrous were it not so shameful. 

In 1912, if the amounts given by the women of 
Baptist churches through their Woman's Foreign Mis- 
sionary Societies be deducted, Northern Baptist men gave 
fifty-eight cents each. To represent more fairly the whole 
shame of the situation, some specially large amounts given 
by a very few individuals should be deducted. When these 
are omitted the regular offerings of the churches aver- 
aged forty-one cents per member for the entire year of 
our Lord 1912. It is time to face the task, and 
either to do it or quit it ; time to cease playing at it and to 
begin to treat it as the great business of the Church. In 
the year ending March 31, 1913, Northern Baptist 
churches contributed for beneficence two million, 
four hundred and eighty-eight thousand, two hundred 
and three dollars and fifty cents. Of this amount, 
counting contributions from women's circles, six hun- 
dred and fifty-eight thousand, one hundred and seventy- 



IN THE ISLAND EMPIRE 211 

four dollars and sixty-seven cents was given for foreign 

missions, about one- fourth of the whole amount. (See 

Annual of Northern Baptist Convention, 1913, pp. xxxix 

and 340.) 

Facts About Japan 

On an area a little greater than that of California are gathered 
51,287,091 people. 

One in 270 of the population of Japan is avowedly Christian; 
one in 566 is a Protestant Christian communicant. 

Protestant Christian constituency numbers at least 180,000. 

Protestant Christian communicants number 90,464. 

Roman and Greek Catholic Christians number 98,935. 

Baptist church-members number 4,084, including 504 under 
Southern Baptist Convention. 

There are 962 missionaries in Japan — one to 60,000 of the 
population. 

Baptist missionaries number 81, nearly one-twelfth of the mis- 
sionary force. 

Japanese Baptist Christians number one-twentieth of Protes- 
tant communicants. 

Baptists in United States number one-fourth of Protestant 
communicants. 

Increase in Japanese Baptist churches averages 10 per cent 
annually. 

Increase in American Baptist churches averages one and 
nine-tenths per cent annually. 

Baptist Educational Institutions in Japan 1 

Japan Baptist Theological Seminary, Tokyo, Japan. W. B. 
Parshley, D. D. (American Baptist Foreign Mission Society), 
president; Yugoro Chiba, D. D. (Southern Baptist Con- 
vention), dean; C. K. Harrington, D. D., Rev. C. B. Tenny, 
Rev. T. Takahashi, Rev. S. Mitamura, of the American 
Baptist Foreign Mission Society; Rev. G. W. Bouldin, Rev. 
K. Sato, of the Southern Baptist Convention. A new site 
has recently been purchased in Tokyo. 



212 FOLLOWING THE SUNRISE 

Woman's Bible Training School, Osaka, Japan. Miss Lavinia 
Mead and native teachers. 
The students of this school, which was opened in 1908, are 
chiefly graduates of the excellent Baptist girls' home schools in 
Japan and do a high grade of work. 

Duncan Baptist Academy, Tokyo, Japan. Mr. J. F. Gressitt, 
principal; Rev. D. C. Holtom. 
Government recognition, which is difficult to obtain in Japan, 
was accorded to Duncan Academy in 1905, and since then an 
advanced course has been added. The school cooperates with a 
Presbyterian school. 

Sarah Curtis Home School, Tokyo, Japan. Miss A. M. Kidder, 

Miss M. A. Whitman, Miss M. M. Carpenter. 

Also known as the Suruga Dai School. The oldest girls' 

school in the mission. Among its graduates are many teachers, 

nurses, and other Christian workers. Pupils number forty-seven. 

Mary L. Colby Home School, Yokohama, Japan. Miss Clara A. 
Converse, Miss Ruth D. French. 
Nearly 100 students are in attendance each year. New build- 
ings have been erected at Kanagawa, a suburb of Yokohama, 
and a college department has been added. 

Ella O. Patrick Home School, Sendai, Japan. Miss Annie S. 
Buzzell, Miss Amy A. Acock, Miss Mary D. Jesse. 
Well known in Japan for the excellence of its work. Prac- 
tically all the girls are Christians. Pupils number fifty-seven. 

Himeji Girls' Boarding School, Himeji, Japan. Miss Edith F. 
Wilcox, Miss F. M. Rumsey, Miss Marjorie Hiscox. 
About eighty girls attend this school. Conversions are fre- 
quent. 

Tokyo Kindergarten Training School, Tokyo, Japan. Miss Har- 
riett L. Dithridge and native teachers. 



IN THE ISLAND EMPIRE 213 

Bibliography 

Griffis, Verbeck of Japan. New York, Revell. 

Whole World Kin: A Pioneer Experience . . . of Nathan Brown. 
Chapters XXXV to XL. Philadelphia, Hubbard, 1890. 

Montgomery, Western Women in Eastern Lands, pp. 17, 18. 
New York, Macmillan, 191 1. 

Clement, Christianity in Modern Japan. Philadelphia, American 
Baptist Publication Society, 1905. 

Gives a bird's-eye view of the work of Christianity, especially 
since 1853. 

DeForest, Sunrise in the Sunrise Kingdom. New York, Mission- 
ary Education Movement, 191 1. 

A study text-book serviceable for reference. 

For the Liuchiu Islands see Christian Movement in Japan. 

Bickel, The Log of the Gospel Ship. Boston, American Baptist 
Foreign Mission Society, 1910. 

Sketches of the unique work of the " Fukuin Maru" in the 
Inland Sea. 

Newcomb, With Our Kindergarten Babies in Japan. Boston, 
Woman's Baptist Foreign Missionary Society. 

Duncan Baptist Academy. Boston, American Baptist Foreign 
Mission Society. 

Merriam, History of American Baptist Missions. Chapter XVII. 

Missions in Japan. Boston, American Baptist Foreign Mission 
Society. 

Japan Baptist Annual. 

Annual reports of the Japan Mission; descriptive of features 
of our work in progress. 



214 FOLLOWING THE SUNRISE 

Christian Movement in Japan, 1903-1913. New York, Missionary 
Education Movement. 

In its yearly issues may be found such descriptive and statisti- 
cal data about the missionary and other phases as the reader of 
this chapter may need. 

World Missionary Conference, 1910 Reports: I, pp. 50-67, Occu- 
pation. II, pp. 122-165, 252-256, 307, 308, Education. IV, 
pp. 77-121, Religions. 



PIONEERING ON THE CONGO 




l^-« 



CHAPTER VII 
PIONEERING ON THE CONGO 

Africa's Redemption. " Where sin abounded grace 
did much more abound " might almost epitomize the 
missionary story of Africa, for it is in the Dark Con- 
tinent, full of cruelty, of savagery, of lust, and super- 
stition that Christianity has won some of its most 
glorious triumphs. There is no wealth of missionary 
heroism that quite equals that of Africa. There are 
no miracles of redemption that surpass those per- 
formed by Christ in the Dark Continent. And Africa, 
the backward, bewildered, undeveloped, and despised 
continent, sees the day of her redemption dawning. 
The black man and his land, last of all, shall find their 
place in the story of human progress. When the story 
of Africa's civilization and redemption shall be written 
the missionary will be seen to be its founder and 
builder. From Prince Henry and the Jesuits to Krapf 
and Rebmann, Livingstone, Coillard, Grenfell, Good, 
and the long roll of missionaries less widely known, 
the African frontier was pushed steadily inland through 
a century. " The African frontier has advanced on 
the stepping-stones of missionary graves," says W. T. 
Stead. 

The Frightful Cost of Life. When we consider the 
frightful cost of life in the early days before the con- 

217 



218 FOLLOWING THE SUNRISE 

ditions under which white men could live in Africa 
were understood, the dauntless faith of the missionary 
pioneers is nothing less than sublime. In 1835 the 
Milnes and Crockers sailed for Liberia. Within a 
month after landing Mrs. Milne died of African fever, 
and the others were so ill that their lives were de- 
spaired of. In reply to a friend^ Mr. Crocker wrote: 
" You ask whether I am not, by this time, sorry I 
came to Africa. I can truly answer, ' No.' Every 
day I bless God for bringing me hither." In two years 
Mr. Milne was compelled to return to America. Mr. 
Crocker lost both his first and second wives by fever, 
each after a service of a few months. The Fieldings 
went to Liberia in 1840, to die of the terrible fever 
within six weeks. Rev. Calvin Holton died after a 
service of four months. Mrs. Anderson lived only 
five days after settling in her new home. All these 
were Baptist missionaries from America. " In the 
first seven years of the Livingstone Inland Mission 
ten white men and one woman were laid to rest in 
Congo earth, and others invalided to England. Dur- 
ing the twenty-five years' history of the English Bap- 
tist mission, thirty-three men and sixteen women 
bought the road with their blood for thirteen hun- 
dred miles inland and one hundred and twenty miles 
south to Zimbo."* Between 1804 and 1824 fifty-three 
missionaries of the Church of England, men and 
women, laid down their lives for Sierra Leone. The 
Swedish Missionary Society on the Congo, in the 

* Parsons' " Christus Liberator," p. 211, 



PIONEERING ON THE CONGO 219 

twenty-five years following 1884, lost fifty-three out of 
one hundred and thirty-five missionaries, by death. On 
the east coast John Ludwig Krapf buried wife and 
child a few months after arriving at Mombasa, and 
sent this challenge home : 

There is now on the East African coast a lonely mis- 
sionary grave. This is a sign that you have commenced 
a struggle with this part of the world; and, as the vic- 
tories of the Church are gained by stepping over the 
graves of her members, you may be the more convinced 
that the hour is at hand when you are summoned to the 
conversion of Africa from its eastern shores. 

At the end of a heroic life of unavailing struggle, 
he said: 

Though many missionaries may fall in the fight, yet 
the survivors will pass over the slain into the trenches 
and take this great African stronghold for the Lord. Be 
mindful of the memorable words spoken by the French 
Guard at the battle of Waterloo, " The Guard does not 
surrender — it dies ! " 

Alexander Mackay's Heroism. When Alexander 
Mackay departed for Uganda in response to Stanley's 
appeal in 1875, he said to the Board of Directors of 
the Church of England Missionary Society: "I want 
to remind the committee that in six months they 
will probably hear that one of us is dead — when the 
news comes do not be cast down, but send some one 
immediately to take the vacant place." Within two 
years Mackay was the only one of the eight young 
men, the flower of England, to survive. Years later, 



220 FOLLOWING THE SUNRISE 

in his last letter home, when he had been driven into 
exile by the people among whom he worked, and when 
the whole undertaking was apparently a failure, he 
wrote : 

What is this you write ? " Come home." Surely, now 
in our terrible dearth of workers it is not a time for any 
one to desert his post. Send us only our first twenty 
men, and I may be tempted to come home to help you find 
another twenty. 

White Men Conquering the Climate. Conditions 
have greatly changed since those early days. The 
terrible sacrifice of life has proved to be not in vain. 
The missions have been established, a great work has 
been done, and white men have learned how to live, 
and to a certain extent, to thrive in the tropical cli- 
mate of Africa. The recent developments in scientific 
medicine have disclosed the origin of many of the 
fevers and contagious diseases. Better sanitation, 
destruction of the mosquitoes, inoculation for typhoid, 
the study of tropical diseases, and increasing medical 
skill in combatting them, have all contributed to 
change conditions. There are to-day many mission- 
aries in tropical Africa who have given a score or 
more of years of continuous service. Of the American 
Baptist force now in the Congo Mission, Doctor Sims, 
Mr. Frederickson, the Clarks, Mr. Richards, Mr. Bill- 
ington, and Mr. Harvey have all seen thirty years of 
service. The Halls, Mrs. Richards, Miss Cole, Mrs. 
Billington, Mrs. Frederickson, the Bains, the Hills, 
Doctor Leslie, the Moodys, and Doctor Lynch have 



PIONEERING ON THE CONGO 221 

all seen twenty years or more. And there are others 
with ten or more years. 

Great Possibilities of Africa. The sacrifice of life 
and treasure that have been poured out so freely in 
Africa has not been expended in an unrewarded quest. 
Africa is so vast that the United States, Europe, India, 
China proper, and Great Britain might all be carved 
out of its territory with generous margins to spare. 
Africa has marvelous water-power, rich mineral de- 
posits, gold and diamond mines, vast grazing fields, 
uncounted forests of rare wood; she has magnificent 
wheat, cotton, coffee, and banana lands. In every 
national resource she is an imperial land. But the 
future of the land is bound up with that of her people ; 
one hundred and fifty millions of primitive, undevel- 
oped, yet powerful men. The conservation of human 
resources is the problem of Africa. Here too, while 
the task is more terrible than that of reclaiming the 
land, it is neither hopeless nor unrewarded. There 
is good stuff in these black diamond mines. It may 
well be that in the roomy providence of God with 
whom one thousand years are as a day, the African, 
so long the despised slave, may some day have a great, 
new word to say. 

Some Gifted Africans. The common expression 
about " inferior races " is misleading and unscientific. 
There are races in which the majority of the individ- 
uals are backward and undeveloped, but there is no 
race in which has not been found some individual 
who could prove that the limitations were not bio- 
logical and racial, but social and circumstantial. Africa, 



222 FOLLOWING THE SUNRISE 

for example, has been rich in these sons of hers, who 
have set forward the hopes of her friends. There was 
Crowther, the slave boy, who became saint and bishop ; 
Kaboo, the son of a Kru chieftain (Sammy Morris), a 
man shining for God ; John Dube, grandson of a Zulu 
king, who has been called the Booker T. Washington 
of South Africa; and Paul, the Apostle of the Congo. 
There is now studying in this country a young man 
who proves the splendid mental capacity of the native 
African. Although only nine years " out from the 
bush/' he speaks and writes French and English, 
studies Latin and higher mathematics, maintains a 
high academic standard in one of the best fitting 
schools in the United States, and is liked and respected 
as a man by all his student associates. Yet this boy 
came from a tribe with no written language, which is 
still in the blackest savagery. 

Importance of the Native Population. Says Profes- 
sor Naylor : " Africa's importance to the world is de- 
pendent, not so much upon what the country possesses 
of natural resources, nor upon what it develops of 
domestic or foreign commerce, as upon what the na- 
tive himself becomes. " This is the task laid upon the 
Christian church, to reach the native in advance of the 
disintegrating and deadening influences of avaricious 
traders. There is no more pressing or momentous 
task. In many sections the Church is already too late. 
A spiritless, drunken, and degraded population has 
replaced the primitive savages. It will take years, 
perhaps centuries, to recover the ground already lost. 
The church must husband what remains. 



PIONEERING ON THE CONGO 223 

Pioneer Efforts Inspired by Africans. It is notable 
that pioneer missionary efforts in this country and in 
England were inspired by black men. The organiza- 
tion of the missionary societies of the Methodist Epis- 
copal Church was inspired by the missionary zeal of a 
Negro. It was a Negro Baptist of Richmond, Va., 
who in 1815 organized among his fellows the Rich- 
mond American Baptist Missionary Society. For five 
years these simple freed Negroes contributed their 
gifts for the redemption of Africa. Before it was 
possible for them to send out their first missionaries 
they had accumulated seven hundred dollars. Through 
the swaying curtain of the years it is difficult to gain 
a clear idea of this remarkable colored man, Lott 
Carey. He had bought his own freedom and that of 
his family by extra work at his trade. He had ac- 
cumulated property and had taught himself to read to 
such good purpose that he read with enjoyment books 
like Adam Smith's "Wealth of Nations." He left 
prospects that for a Negro were remarkable, to go to 
Liberia, as the first colored missionary. Here his 
native force made him the bulwark against the powers 
of savagery that were threatening to overwhelm the 
infant colony. The first British missionary to Africa 
was a manumitted slave of the West Indies. After 
England had emancipated the blacks in the West In- 
dies, a Negro named Keith purposed to return to Africa 
and preach the gospel in the very place where he him- 
self had been captured as a slave. He worked his 
passage to Africa before the mast, and was later 
adopted by the colored Baptists of Jamaica as their 



224 FOLLOWING THE SUNRISE 

missionary. " Perhaps they will make you slaves 
again/' said some timid brethren to these early mis- 
sionaries. " As we have been made slaves for men, 
so we can be made slaves for Christ/' they answered. 
Following these first beginnings, the Southern Bap- 
tists maintained missionary work in Liberia and Sierra 
Leone, and later in the Yoruba country. The North- 
ern Baptists, after the separation from the Southern 
Baptists, did nothing further for Africa until 1884. 

Baptists Acquire the Livingstone Inland Mission. 
The Livingstone Inland Mission of England, organ- 
ized in 1879, had founded a chain of seven stations up 
the river, had launched the steamboat " Henry Reed " 
in the upper Congo, had reduced the Congo language 
to writing, published a grammar and dictionary, and 
sent out fifty missionaries. This entire plant, repre- 
senting an investment of one hundred and fifty thou- 
sand dollars, with a missionary staff numbering 
twenty-six, was offered to American Baptists of the 
North. Although there were some who were doubtful 
about the wisdom of accepting this offer, it was de- 
cided to adopt the mission. It is said that Dr. Ed- 
ward Bright was one of the leaders whose ringing 
editorials in " The Examiner " had much to do with 
preventing Baptists from making the blunder of re- 
treating before such an opportunity. 

The Congo Free State. At that time the vast 
region known as the Congo Free State had only 
recently begun to occupy the public thought. Stanley, 
by his exploration in 1879, had unwittingly laid the 
basis for the personal domination of King Leopold of 



PIONEERING ON THE CONGO 225 

Belgium in the Congo Basin. The purpose of the 
great nations who joined in the Berlin Conference of 
1884 to create the Congo Free State, was sadly frus- 
trated by the tyrannical and sordid apology for a gov- 
ernment which King Leopold set up throughout this 
whole region. Concessions in rubber and ivory were 
farmed out to greedy commercial companies. Through 
these King Leopold waxed rich by the tribute wrung 
from millions of helpless people. By forced taxes, 
cruel exactions, burnings, mutilations, and death, 
great regions once populous were made desolate. It 
was only because of the fearless and persistent pub- 
licity which the missionaries gave to these dark deeds 
perpetrated in the heart of Africa that the Congo atrocities 
were ultimately terminated. 

Present Conditions on the Congo. The swarming 
population that Stanley found throughout the Congo 
basin has been sadly reduced. Social conditions are 
changed, often for the better. The dark shadow of 
cannibalism still remains in localities far back from 
the river. Polygamy, nakedness of body and spirit, 
cruelty, and the terrors of an overshadowing animism 
still characterize the land, but these " wild, rowdy 
Congo people " have proved to have the making of 
men and to be peculiarly open and responsive to the 
preaching of the gospel. Those longest on the field 
believe that the worst conditions have been reached 
and that already a change for the better is observable. 
American Baptists have shared the responsibility of 
the Congo field with the English Baptists, the Swedish, 
the Disciples, the Alliance Mission, the Plymouth Breth- 



226 FOLLOWING THE SUNRISE 

ren, the Southern Presbyterians, and the Regions Beyond 
Missionary Union. Yet all of them together have only 
made a beginning in the work which must be done in 
these vast fields of equatorial Africa. 

The Pentecost on the Congo. In 1886 Henry Rich- 
ards, one of the missionaries who had gone out under 
the Livingstone Inland Mission, had been laboring at 
Banza Manteke for seven years with few results. 
When he had traveled through the pathless wilderness 
in 1879, there was not one person who knew Christ. 
He built himself a hut of the long grass and settled 
down to pick the language from the lips of the people 
and reduce it to writing. In his little note-book he 
wrote down all that he learned. The savages mocked 
him, stole from him, lied to him, and lived quite openly 
their shameless and evil lives. The difficulties were 
enormous. For example, it took Mr. Richards three 
months of study to find out their word for "yester- 
day." He found that there were sixteen declensions 
of nouns and seventeen conjugations of verbs, with 
tenses galore, each with its special form and delicate 
shade of meaning. In fact, one of the mysteries sur- 
rounding these Central African peoples is the superi- 
ority of their languages. How did such savages ever 
invent such smooth, mellifluous, flexible, and rich 
language forms ? After gaining the language, he made 
acquaintance with the ideas and superstitions of the 
people. He found that they had a shadowy belief in a 
Supreme Creator, " Nzambi " ; but him they did not 
worship, because they thought he had gone away and 
did not concern himself with them.. They were 



PIONEERING ON THE CONGO 227 

engaged rather in the attempt to placate the spiritual 
powers of darkness, with which they believed the 
world to be peopled. 

The Turning-Point. Mr. Richards thought that he 
must begin his preaching with the idea of creation, 
and that of God as a loving heavenly Father. For 
four years he tried this, leading them along the path 
of Old Testament story. Then he began to preach 
the law, the Ten Commandments, the terrible pun- 
ishment of sin. The people remained quite indifferent. 
They said that these laws were good ; that they them- 
selves kept them, and calmly refused to make any 
uncomfortable personal application. (How much like 
us they are !) In despair Mr. Richards began anew 
a study of the missionary life of the apostles, and saw 
that the heathen were converted, not with the preach- 
ing of the law of condemnation, but by the good news 
of grace. This was the turning-point. He began sim- 
ply with Luke's Gospel, translating twelve verses 
every day, and then explaining them to the people. 
When he came to the thirtieth verse of the sixth 
chapter he did not know what to do. The people were 
shameless beggars, thieves too. Why not pass over 
that verse? He studied and prayed. Did the verse 
mean what it said? Here he was in the wilderness. 
If he gave the people what they asked him for they 
would strip him to the bone, and heartlessly leave him 
to perish. At last, after weeks of prayer, he decided 
to translate the verse with absolute fidelity to the 
word of Christ; to say that this was a high standard, 
but that from thenceforth he meant to try to live up 



228 FOLLOWING THE SUNRISE 

to it. After the address was over the people flocked 
around him, and then began to ask him for his things 
until they left him with barely a roof over his head. 
That night he laid the whole burden upon God, and 
lay down to sleep. Before the early dawn he was 
wakened by the stealthy footfalls of those who were 
returning the goods which they had begged. " This 
must be ' Nzambi's ' man," they said. " If he is God's 
man we must not rob him. We cannot keep what he 
has given us." 

Coming of the Revival. As he continued to tell the 
story of Christ's life, the solemnity grew until, when 
he came to the crucifixion, the Holy Spirit itself 
seemed to be working in the hearts of the people. 
Then came the first convert, Lutate, whom Mr. Rich- 
ards had to take into his own house for safe-keeping, 
because his enemies tried to poison him. The chiefs 
son was converted, and then the number of believers 
swelled to ten. Taking these disciples, Mr. Richards 
went throughout the territory telling the story of 
Jesus. A thousand names were enrolled in the list of 
believers. When the news reached America the mem- 
bers of Dr. A. J. Gordon's church in Boston sent out 
a chapel in sections, all ready to put together. The 
Christians walked sixty miles and carried it all upon 
their heads to Banza Manteke in seven hundred loads. 
Some of them made the rough journey five times, each 
trip taking a week, and did it all for love, with laugh- 
ter and bright faces. From Banza Manteke the revival 
spread to other stations up and down the Congo. To- 
day there are enrolled in all the churches of the Amer- 



PIONEERING ON THE CONGO 229 

ican missions working in this section of Africa, four- 
teen thousand baptized Christians. There are in the 
Christian community more than three times this num- 
ber of people. If we add to the American societies the 
English and Continental, we have eighteen societies 
in all, with forty-five thousand communicants or one 
hundred and three thousand adherents.* 

Generosity of Congo Christians. These Africans 
make pretty good church-members too, when it is 
considered that most of them are not one generation 
away from savagery. Their generosity puts more ad- 
vanced Christians to shame. The average income of 
a man is about sixteen dollars a year, yet the per 
capita average for each contributing member at 
Ikoko was one dollar and thirty-eight cents. The 
church at Wathen, in the English Baptist mission on 
the Congo, established fifty-two new branches last 
year. The church boasts one hundred and ninety- 
six evangelists; ninety-two of them are paid workers 
and one hundred and four voluntary workers. One 
out of every ten of the one thousand, nine hundred 
and ninety-five members of this church is an evan- 
gelist. Is there a church in America which can match 
this record? At Ikoko the church recently passed 
the rule that any one refusing to help in the Lord's 
work when called upon by the church should be ex- 
pelled. Many of these people do not see a franc 
(twenty cents) once a month. On one of his trips Mr. 
Hartsock found in the collection arrows, cloth, plates, 

* Statistical Atlas, published by Edinburgh World Conference. 



230 FOLLOWING THE SUNRISE 

and so on. In some cases these were all the posses- 
sions which the contributors had. He speaks of one 
woman who had a piece of cloth about two feet long 
and a string of beads. These were all the property 
she possessed in the world. She gave them both to 
help build a chapel in her town. Mr. Metzger tells 
of a group of seventy men and boys who turned over 
to him all the rubber they had on hand, worth in all 
about twenty-five dollars. They gave this as a special 
donation in addition to their monthly gifts in order 
to avoid a debt which confronted the mission. 

Striking Changes Brought About. Some of the vet- 
eran missionaries of the Baptist mission have stated 
in a very impressive way the differences made among 
these people by the preaching of the gospel in one 
generation. Rev. Joseph Clark, of Ikoko, writing after 
his last furlough in 1912, says: 

Eighteen years ago we came to a people whose lan- 
guage was not known, and to whom the gospel story had 
not been told. All the men were reputed cannibals, de- 
lighting in warfare and every form of evil, and each 
carried bows and arrows, spears and knife. The women 
were treated as slaves, or beasts of burden, were almost 
nude, and devoid of every womanly feeling. Now, as 
they stood on the beach to welcome us, we saw scores of 
women and girls decently clothed, with smiling faces and 
cheerful voices, as they sang hymns of praise to God. 
The men were clothed and carried no weapons. The old 
savage, sullen, heathen face was gone. . . Look at 
that sturdy, well-dressed woman, whose face lights up 
with a smile, and note her nicely clothed baby and her 
six little ones. She was one of the wildest women when 
we first made her acquaintance. On the slightest provo- 




A MEETING EOR THE WOMEN 




ORPHANAGE GTRLS AT SON A BATA LEARNING TO SEW 



PIONEERING ON THE CONGO 231 

cation she would challenge any one to fight her, and 
would stand out, nude, waiting for some one whom she 
could bite and tear. For years she has been a follower 
of Jesus, and tells others the story of his wondrous love. 
. . As Mrs. Clark stepped off the gangplank, her 
face was pale and drawn with emotion. . . In a mo- 
ment she was lifted on the shoulders of these strong 
women, who carried her up from the beach and into her 
house before they laid down their old " Mama." 

Mrs. Frederickson's testimony is not less striking: 

It will be twenty-seven years since I landed at Banana 
to give my life for the evangelization of Congo. . . 
It required fifteen days then to travel between Matadi 
and Sona Bata, where coolies carried us by hammock. 
The train takes us now in two days. . . The people 
were superstitious and thought that we were the cause of 
their death and that we took their souls to Europe. They 
lived in fear and hatred, in wars and slavery, and few 
wore clothes. Slavery is officially stopped, so are the 
wars. To-day there are Christians in many villages 
where over one hundred thousand people must have 
heard some of the gospel. Surely, the dawn is here. 
Come over and help us. 

Mr. Moody, of Lukunga, says that, whereas ten 
years ago the people used to run away from him, they 
will now come a distance of twenty or thirty miles 
in order to attend the quarterly communion service; 
will walk two days on the road, will sleep five nights on 
the ground, and provide their own food. 

The Apostle of the Congo. There are not wanting 
notable individual Christians. Perhaps the story of 
Paul, the Apostle of the Congo, is best known. He 



2$2 FOLLOWING THE SUNRISE 

had been a violent opponent of the gospel, the wild 
young son of the chief. He sought with drink and the 
beating of the old heathen drums to draw away the 
Christians from the worship. His heathen name was 
Nloko, " the curse/' But one time this man, whom 
none could tame, found himself in great peril on the 
mighty river, whose thunders , drowned his weak 
cries as he called for help. He vowed a vow that if 
the Christians' God would help him he would be his 
man. God saved his life, and, true to his word, he 
presented himself as a convert before the amazed and 
perhaps excusably skeptical missionary. He soon 
proved that his repentance was no scheme to make 
trouble, but the genuine thing. The rowdy robber 
and murderer had become a new man in Christ Jesus. 
The new life grew swiftly, rooting out his old evil 
habits. He asked to be given the hardest tasks; and 
after his baptism, no longer Nloko, " the curse/' but 
Paul, the missionary, he was allowed to go to Kun- 
zama, a town where it had been impossible to gain a 
foothold for the gospel. The people were afraid of 
him, and would not admit him to the town. Nothing 
daunted, he made him a hut just outside the village, 
and began his siege. They would not sell him food, 
and tried to prevent his getting water. He nearly 
starved. He endured cruel persecution, but he stuck 
to his post. After some months a man came out from 
the town, saying : " I too am a Christian." He built 
another hut near Paul's, and the two united in prayer 
and work. One by one the people were won over, 
until there was surrounding Paul's hut a Christian 



PIONEERING ON THE CONGO 233 

village containing a chapel that would seat three 
hundred people. Out into the dark forest these Chris- 
tians went, from village to village, into regions where 
the missionaries had never penetrated. Wherever they 
went they told the story of the cross. " It is this 
which breaks men's hearts," they said. Before Paul 
died he had gathered about him a church numbering 
six hundred members, and his evangelists had gath- 
ered other hundreds beyond the river. Said Mr. Rich- 
ards : " All that Paul dreamed of was souls and how 
he could reach them. He was a born preacher. No 
man's prayers helped me so much as his." 

Returning Good for Evil. The finer flowers of the 
gospel philosophy of life do not prove out of reach of 
the African. Perhaps nothing is harder even for ma- 
ture Christians than to act upon the Saviour's counsel 
of perfection in regard to loving one's enemies and 
praying for those who are persecutors. There was the 
son of an African chief who was insolently beaten one 
day by a Belgian official because he did not instantly 
yield the path. Now, in his own eyes and in the 
opinion of all the natives, this young chief was a very 
grand person indeed. To be beaten like a common 
slave was infinite degradation, unless the insult could 
be atoned in blood. The young fellow was a Chris- 
tian. He came into the mission, shaking with passion, 
unable to tell the story of the unprovoked assault. Yet 
he was able to come quietly into prayer-meeting that 
night and pray for his enemy with free forgiveness. 
Those who think that this was an easy triumph do 
not know the fierce courage of these Congo tribes, or 



234 FOLLOWING THE SUNRISE 

their code of blood-revenge. The courage and faith 
which it required for the young chief to do this thing 
were not less than sublime. He took up his cross and 
followed his Master. 

Just One Tribe. If missions among primitive people 
accomplished little else they would be worth all that 
they cost simply to demonstrate the unity of man 
and to break the crust of the colossal race-egotism of 
the whites. The paths on the steepest heights of the 
spirit are not marked, "Reserved for white men." 
Daily the scientific accuracy and profound spirituality 
of Paul's great saying become more apparent — " God 
hath made of one blood all men for to dwell on the 
face of the earth." This is beautifully illustrated in a 
story told recently regarding Miss Jean McKenzie, a 
Presbyterian missionary, working to the north of the 
Congo country, in Efulen. The women of Efulen, it 
seems, had asked her to make them clothing like the 
long robes she wore. 

" Who am I," she answered, " that I should make you 
clothing? Am not I the speaker of the Word who walks 
from village to village at the bottom of the forest sea? " 

" Whence then get you your own long garments, white 
teacher? " 

" I will tell you. Do you remember Memba, the girl 
who went from our village to Elat with her husband ? " 
The women nodded. 

" Who is it that says to the traveler through the forest 
' Go you to Elat, the village of Memba ' ? " 

" Her mother, surely." 

" In my father's village, called New York, is my 
mother, and when travelers come across the great water 



PIONEERING ON THE CONGO 235 

she says to them, ' Go you to the village of Jean Mc- 
Kenzie ? ' and when they answer ' Yes/ she loads them 
with garments for me." 

" Oh/' said the women, " we perceive you also are of 
our tribe." 

Baptist Schools on the Congo. One of the important 
features of missionary work on the Congo is the 
schools. The American Baptists were perhaps slow to 
realize the need of well-equipped station boarding- 
schools in which to train the leaders and apostles of 
the people. The Congo can never be evangelized or 
Christianized by white men. They can only give their 
lives each one to inspire a score of Africans who can 
speak where they only stammer, live where they only 
languish, understand where they stumble in darkness. 
The English Baptists have a much better developed 
system of these station schools. The language prob- 
lem becomes ever more acute. French is the language 
of the government, and the one which it is most im- 
portant for the Congo native to learn. If Protestants 
are to hold and gain the Congo for Christ there must 
be missionaries who can teach French as well as or 
better than the Jesuits teach it. 

Boarding-Schools. There are seven boarding- 
schools. At Banza Manteke, a girls' boarding-school 
with fourteen pupils ; at Lukunga, one for boys with 
thirty pupils; at Sona Bata, one for boys with forty- 
four pupils, and one for girls with thirty-two pupils ; 
at Ikoko, one for girls with twenty-five pupils; at 
Kimpesi, the Evangelical Training School with six- 
teen pupils ; at Palabala, a school with twenty-five 



236 FOLLOWING THE SUNRISE 

pupils; at Tshumbiri a girls' school with nine pupils. 
Some of these have little or no equipment or build- 
ings, and are only maintained by the self-sacrificing 
care of missionary wives who take in a family of from 
ten to twenty children, and mother and train them. 
Mr. Clark speaks of the equipment at Ikoko as follows: 

The school is prospering, but the equipment is some- 
what primitive. The main building is an open shed, 
floored with small loose stones and sand from the lake 
shore. The furnishings are three tables and desks, and 
a case of slates given by a Boston friend. There are no 
maps or pictures of any kind. We do not worry, how- 
ever, over the things we lack, but think of these attractive 
young pupils in whom are great possibilities. 

Mrs. Metzger, who has begun a girls' school in 
Tshumbiri, writes that four of her girls are from the 
Bateke tribe, whose women have been so difficult to 
reach, because the men will not allow them the priv- 
ilege of hearing the gospel. She said that when they 
came, they wore only loin-cloths, and their hair was 
matted with oil. She now has them clean, wearing 
dresses which they have made themselves, with their 
hair nicely cut. They have even reached the point of 
making combination suits of underwear for them- 
selves ! 

Need for Better Equipment. Is it not a challenge to 
American Baptists to send men and women to this 
neediest and most difficult field, and then to equip 
them with what would be necessary on the homeland 
in similar undertakings ? Dr. Catharine Mabie's indignant 
query will find an echo in many hearts : 



PIONEERING ON THE CONGO 237 

When shall we have boarding-schools like those of the 
British Baptist Missionary Society, properly staffed and 
equipped, to meet the crying need of our largely evangel- 
ized but ill-shepherded lower Congo field? If only our 
Banza Manteke school, opened ten years ago, could have 
lived to perform its proper functions, we should not to- 
day have such a dearth of trained native workers. 

Mrs. Frederickson, after long pleading, was grateful 
beyond words for five hundred dollars with which to 
build a dormitory for her girls, formerly housed in 
native huts and sheds. When one thinks of the addi- 
tional labor which this entailed in the way of super- 
vision, and of the impossibility of teaching order, 
neatness, and better standards of living under such 
conditions, it seems a shame that this apostolic woman 
had to toil so long with her needs unsupplied. 

Kimpesi Evangelical Training Institution. At Kim- 
pesi there has recently been established a new type of 
school, the Congo Evangelical Training Institution, 
to which the men in training as evangelists and teach- 
ers may come for a three years' course and may bring 
their families. In this school English and American 
Baptists unite. Mr. McDiarmed and Mr. Cameron 
put in their vacation superintending the making of one 
hundred and thirty-five thousand bricks with which, 
under their direction, the students built seven double- 
brick houses in which they and their families were to 
live. The compound was cleared of a year's growth 
of tall grass, gardens were made and trees planted. 
Here they will have a regular African community life, 
so under the direction of the missionaries that it will 



238 FOLLOWING THE SUNRISE 

be possible greatly to elevate the standards of these 
who are to be the leaders of the people. Doctor Mabie 
has been transferred to Kimpesi, and has undertaken 
the teaching of the women in physiology and hygiene. 
She also has Bible classes for the women and children, 
and supervises the practice schools of the normal de- 
partment. She is working out a set of primary text- 
books, and beginning a course with the women on the 
duties and privileges of wifehood, motherhood, and 
church-membership. In Africa too, we are discover- 
ing that the source of conservatism and reaction is 
among the wives and mothers, and that it is quite as 
important to train the wives of teachers and preachers 
as to train the men themselves. 

Industrial Training. One of the greatest needs of 
Baptist schools on the Congo is the introduction of 
industrial training suited to the needs of the people. 
The men have behind them centuries of the free, lazy 
life of the hunter and fighter. The women have been 
the immemorial drudges. It is necessary to teach the 
men to work if they are to be led out of the savage 
into the civilized state. These Congo Negroes are not 
wanting in energy, and have much native aptitude as 
artisans in the working of metals. Those who are 
skeptical in this matter should read the story of Love- 
dale in South Africa, the Livingstonia Industrial Mis- 
sion in Central Africa, and that of Uganda.* 

The Village School. There are a total of two hun- 
dred and forty-seven village schools in Baptist Congo 

* See " Daybreak in the Dark Continent," p. 160. 



PIONEERING ON THE CONGO 239 

regions, with seven thousand, six hundred and ninety- 
two pupils. The following table was obtained from 
the combined reports of the Woman's Boards and those 
of the American Baptist Foreign Mission Society for the 
past two years. Owing to furloughs and the under- 
manning of stations, it is sometimes impossible to get 
reports from all the stations every year. 

VILLAGE SCHOOLS IN CONGO MISSION 

Average No. 
Schools. Pupils. Pupils. 

Palabala 17 872 51 

Banza Manteke 72 3,261 43 

Lukunga 15 255 17 

Sona Bata 39 708 18 

Matadi 2 67 33 

Cuillo 1 50 50 

Tshumbiri 24 1,120 46 

Mukimvika 48 850 17 

Ikoko 14 500 35 

One of the indispensable factors in the elevation of 
the people is the training of the young children, the 
capturing of the beautiful young spirits before they 
are warped and stunted by the evil conditions about 
them. The day will come when there will be kinder- 
gartens in the African forest, and kindergarten train- 
ing schools. Now, the problem is to keep the breath 
of life in the little village schools under the leadership 
of the half-trained and partially effective native teach- 
ers on whom for the present the mission must depend. 
With all their failings, these village schools are the 
Q 



2 4 o FOLLOWING THE SUNRISE 

springs of progress. In them are discovered the bright 
boys and girls to send up to the station-schools for 
further training. Out of them come the most prom- 
ising converts. 

Salaries of the Teachers. One of the difficulties is 
the low salary paid to the teacher. Each school now 
costs on an average sixteen dollars, the price of the 
teacher's salary. This is too little ; it really is ! If 
there could be two hundred and fifty Sunday-schools 
in American Baptist churches who would each agree 
to pay twenty-five dollars a year for the support of a 
village school in Africa, new life would come into the 
whole village-school situation. Think of it! Twenty- 
five dollars a year for a school in which thirty or forty 
little children are taught to read and write, to sing 
beautiful hymns, to learn whole chapters from the 
New Testament, to have their first lessons in decency 
and in truth. The difficulty is in holding teachers to 
their work on their present low salaries. Mr. Hill, 
of Lukunga, reports that eighteen teachers left their 
schools to go to work on the railroad or in the copper 
mines. In the copper mines the workmen are paid from 
four to six dollars a month; as teachers they receive 
from sixty cents to a dollar and twenty cents a month. 
They have to pay a tax of nine francs a year to the 
Belgian Government. So it becomes necessary for 
them to earn more money. It does look as though it 
might be a little difficult even for a Congo native to 
pay a tax equal to one dollar and eighty cents out 
of an annual income of sixteen dollars. The mission 
would not have to pay teachers as much as they could 




STARTING FOR A TOUR OX A MOXOCYCLE 




AN OPERATION UNDER DIFFICULTIES 



PIONEERING ON THE CONGO 241 

earn in the mines. Africans are like Americans; they 
would rather teach than work in copper mines. Even 
the slight raise in salary to twenty-five dollars a year 
would, doubtless, hold most of them. 

Enlarged Opportunity for Village Schools. Every 
year the people are growing more appreciative of the 
value of these village schools. Mr. Geil tells of receiv- 
ing a very urgent communication from a chief beyond 
the river, asking for teachers. " The chief wants to 
know why it is that his people cannot have teachers 
when he has asked for them so often. There hasn't 
been a teacher in all his territory. The chief says that 
the priests are coming to ask permission to put teach- 
ers in his villages. But he doesn't want their teachers ; 
he wants teachers from the mission." Mr. Geil says 
that with a list of twenty such villages open before 
him he is compelled to write that he has no teachers 
to send. 

Medical Work on the Congo. Medical work on the 
Congo offers a unique opportunity. Among all ani- 
mistic people (spirit worshipers) the witch-doctor and 
the priest are one and the same person. Hence, it 
is the natural thing to a Congo mind that a minister 
should also be a doctor. In fact, it is a distinct handi- 
cap to a preacher, if he is not also a physician. So 
true is this that, perforce, the missionaries have all 
done more or less in the healing of disease. For years, 
at Sona Bata, Mrs. Frederickson, without any hos- 
pital building, with only native huts for dispensary 
buildings, has done a remarkable work in medical min- 
istry. In 1912 she treated in the dispensary nearly 



242 FOLLOWING THE SUNRISE 

six thousand cases, cared for forty-six in-patients and 
collected thirteen hundred and forty-four francs* in 
medical fees. Mrs. Bain, during the furlough of Doc- 
tor Mabie, heroically assumed charge of the medi- 
cal work in Banza Manteke in 1912, pending the 
arrival of Doctor Parsons. She reported a thousand 
and seventeen treatments, eighteen in-patients, one 
hundred calls in villages, and eight patients treated in 
villages. Mrs. Billington also, while in Tshumbiri, 
did a splendid medical work. Mr. Rodgers, at Ikoko, 
kept up active dispensary practice. All these mission- 
aries were limited to the treatment of the common 
ailments which their skill allowed them to undertake, 
and welcomed most gladly the fully trained physicians 
recently sent to the reenforcement of the mission. 

Medical Staff on the Congo. There are now in the 
Congo mission, Doctor Sims, the splendid pioneer of 
thirty years' service, at Matadi; Doctor Lynch at 
Mukimvika, Doctor Nauss at Sona Bata, Doctor Os- 
trom at Ikoko, Doctor Leslie at Vanga (recently re- 
moved from Cuillo), Doctor Mabie at Kimpesi. Every 
one of these heroic physicians ought to have a well- 
built modern hospital, equipped both for the saving 
of life and the carrying on of those researches in tropi- 
cal diseases which will make all life on the Congo 
safer. They ought to be supplemented by trained 
nurses, who should begin the task of training native 
nurses and midwives and of securing better sanitation 
in daily life. There are individual churches, as well as 

* Nearly $269. 



PIONEERING ON THE CONGO 243 

individual believers in the home church who, without 
any straining of their resources, could put a hospital 
in every station. 

Facts About Africa 
Three Af ricas : 

Pagan Africa, population 90,000,000 

Christian Africa 5,5oo,ooo 

Mohammedan Africa 40,000,000 

Eight hundred and forty-three languages in Africa; not one 
of them written when missions began. 

One hundred million people to-day without a written language. 

Five blocks of unoccupied territory, containing 50,000,000 
people, outside the reach or plans of any missionary society. 

Missionaries number 1,585. 

Average parish to each missionary, 900,000. 

Unoccupied Portuguese African territory is four times the 
size of New York State. 

In the Sudan is territory as large as the United States of 
America, containing 15,000,000 souls, without one resident mis- 
sionary. 

Twenty African languages reduced to writing in 19 13. 

Fourteen out of fifteen Presbyterian churches in Kamerun are 
self-supporting. 

Baptist Educational Institution in the Congo 

Evangelical Training School, Kimpesi, Belgian Congo. Rev. 
S. E. Moon, Miss Catharine L. Mabie, M. D., representing 
the American Baptist Foreign Mission Society. 
English and American Baptists unite in this teachers' training 
school, which has about forty-five pupils. The equipment in- 
cludes dormitories, lecture-rooms, built of iron with grass roofs, 
and a central building, the Bentley Memorial. Industrial work 
is a feature. 



243 



244 FOLLOWING THE SUNRISE 

" We must bear the brunt of danger, 
We the youthful sinewy races, all the rest on us depend, 
Pioneers ! O Pioneers ! 

" On and on the compact ranks 
Through the battle, through defeat, moving yet and never 
stopping, 

Pioneers ! O Pioneers ! * 



— Walt Whitman. 



Bibliography 



Stanley, Henry M. y Autobiography of. Boston, Houghton, 
Mifflin and Company. 

Naylor, Daybreak in the Dark Continent. New York, Mission- 
ary Education Movement, 1912. 
A study text-book useful for reference. 

Parson, Christus Liberator. New York, Macmillan, 1905. 

An outline study of Africa. 

Harrison, Mackay of Uganda. New York, Armstrong, 1898. 

Gammell, History of American Baptist Missions. Chapter XIX. 
Boston, 1854. 

Medbury, Memoir of William G. Crocker. Boston, 1848. 

Merriam, History of American Baptist Missions. Chapter XVIII. 

Missions in Africa. Boston, American Baptist Foreign Mission 
Society, 1905. 

Paul, the Apostle of Banza M ant eke. Boston, American Baptist 
Foreign Mission Society, 1913. 

Pentecost on the Congo. Boston, xA^merican Baptist Foreign 
Mission Society, 1906. 

World Missionary Conference, 1910, Reports: I, pp. 224, 225, Oc- 
cupation. II, p. 422, Education. Ill, pp. 7-37, Religions. 



BUTTRESSING DEMOCRACY IN THE 
PHILIPPINES 



CHAPTER VIII 

BUTTRESSING DEMOCRACY IN THE 
PHILIPPINES 

Phoebus' chariot race is run 
Look up, poet, at the sun. 

— E. B. Browning. 

The Wonder Year. Did the sun ever shine on a 
more surprising year than that of 1898? A year that 
saw the world's greatest despot issue a peace rescript 
to bring together the nations of the world for the abro- 
gation of war; the downfall of Spain as a colonial 
power, and the annexation of the Philippines without 
the loss of an American life ; the promulgation of 
twenty-seven reform edicts by the Emperor of China, 
his consequent deposition, and the seizure by Russia, 
England, France, and Japan of nearly all China's seaports ! 

America in the Field of World Politics. Suddenly 
America rubbed her eyes. The ship of state was un- 
moored, and with all sails set was making for the high 
seas. Policies of isolation were at an end, whether 
she would or not, for good or ill, she was afloat on the 
sea of international politics. Doctor Barrows, on his 
return after delivering the first course of lectures in 
India on the Haskell Foundation, commented on the 
sudden shifting of public interest. When he went 

247 



248 FOLLOWING THE SUNRISE 

away he said audiences were small and evidently bored 
by the discussion of such remote and uninteresting 
topics as the Far East. When he returned at the end 
of 1898, the largest halls would not hold the people, 
eager to hear more of the strange, distant nations, 
with whom, for the first time, they recognized com- 
mon interests and a common destiny. 

Acquisition of the Philippines. When Admiral 
Dewey's cablegram was received, announcing the re- 
sult of the battle of Manila, there were not wanting 
those among well-educated people who hastened to 
consult the atlas before the children could ask them 
where the Philippines were. It was as if a great Hand 
suddenly reached in to our little games of statecraft 
and politics and rearranged the pieces. " America," 
says Charles W. Briggs, in his fascinating book, " The 
Progressing Philippines," " like Magellan nearly four 
hundred years earlier, sailed into the Philippines under 
sealed orders of vaster import than could be known 
at the time. The battle of Manila Bay was an act in a 
drama of far greater design than the chief actors 
even guessed." * 

Size. The islands which dropped so unexpectedly 
into the hands of America in 1898 form one of the 
world's fairest archipelagoes. Thousands of them dot 
the surface of the tropic seas, three hundred are in- 
habited, eleven are large islands. They extend a thou- 
sand miles north and south, and five hundred miles 
east and west. California or Japan has each a some- 

* See " The Progressing Philippines," p. 163. 



BUTTRESSING DEMOCRACY 249 

what larger area, but the Philippines could sustain as 
large a population as Japan with her forty-five millions 
of inhabitants. The Philippine area is greater than 
that of Italy, which sustains a population of thirty- 
two millions as against the seven million, six hundred 
thousand of the Philippines. The Middle Atlantic 
States, with a population of nineteen millions, have 
virtually the same area. The longitude is such that 
when it is noon at Washington, D. C, it is ten o'clock 
the following morning at Manila ! 

Climate. The climate of the islands is distinctly 
tropical, yet so tempered by the ocean that there is 
comparatively little variation in temperature through- 
out the year. Many Americans who have become ac- 
climated are enthusiastic about the climate, and prophesy 
that when once the islands have been made sanitary 
they will become a health resort for Europeans and 
Americans. 

Resources and People. While minerals are not 
lacking, the chief wealth of the Philippines is in their 
forests and their agricultural products: rice, hemp, 
copra, sugar, tobacco. The people of the islands are 
Malay in origin. The elaborate theories in regard to 
many diverse race-stocks have all gone to pieces in 
the face of first-hand investigations on the spot by 
government scientists. The Filipino is a Malay. Lan- 
guage differences are those of dialect produced by 
the isolation of the various tribes. The mountain 
ranges running north and south forbade communica- 
tion between tribes living on the eastern and western 
sides of the islands. In addition to the Filipino tribes, 



250 FOLLOWING THE SUNRISE 

there are the dwarf Negrito, or aboriginal tribes, who 
were driven by the Malay invaders to the mountain 
fastnesses of the interior. Only a few thousand of 
these shy savages survive. The name Filipino is 
confined to the Christianized portion of the Malay 
population. The pagan Malay tribes — Igorotes, Ifu- 
gaos, Nangianes, and others — are found in the moun- 
tainous interior of the larger islands only. These num- 
ber about a half-million, and are supposed to represent 
the first wave of the Malay invasion. These savages 
preserve primitive Malay social institutions virtually 
unchanged. They are exceedingly conservative, brave, 
hardy, and industrious. American army officers de- 
clare that they think some of the best raw material 
in the islands is to be found among these primitive 
folk. The Moros, of Mindanao, the southern island, 
are also Malay, representing the last wave of Malay 
immigration to the Philippines. They are very fierce 
and aggressive Moslems. They were in process of 
conquering the whole archipelago when the Spaniards 
took possession of the islands and checked their ad- 
vance, but were never able to subdue them. 

Race Unity. The Philippines are seen to have one 
of the bases of nationality, a homogeneous people, 
divided it is true, but capable of being brought to- 
gether. Furthermore, the great majority of the in- 
habitants are unified by religion and social customs. 
While Spain did not accomplish all that could be 
wished during her three hundred years of dominance, 
she did give the Filipinos what no other Malay race 
ever had, ideas of monotheism and monogamy. She 



BUTTRESSING DEMOCRACY 251 

cleared the ground for the superstructure of a freer 
and purer religious and political life. In our prejudice 
against Spanish medieval ideals of government and 
religion we must never forget the real debt which the 
islands owe to Spain. To one-tenth of the people she 
gave the knowledge of the Spanish language, with its 
noble literature; to all, the traditions of the Christian 
family, with its tenderness toward childhood and old 
age. The depth of her influence is clearly seen by the 
very revolutions which the Filipinos waged against 
Spain herself. What other Malay people ever held 
the idea of liberty in Church and State so as to be 
willing to pour out its blood like water to obtain it? 

Filipino Tribes. In this brief study of Baptist mis- 
sions it is unnecessary to enumerate all of the Filipino 
tribes. The Tagalogs, found in the principal island 
of Luzon, are the most restless and adventurous, the 
most citified and Spaniardized. They comprise about 
one and a half millions, and are located chiefly in the 
territory in which Manila is situated. Baptist work is 
among the Visayans, who are found in the islands of 
Panay, Negros, Cebu, Samar, Leyte, and Bohol, sta- 
tions being located only on the first two named. The 
other civilized tribes are found for the most part in 
northern Luzon. 

Filipino Characteristics. Travelers do not give the 
Filipino a very good reputation. They say he is lazy, 
improvident, a gambler, and without ambition. This 
is undoubtedly true of the large number of semi- 
parasitic middle-class mestizos (mixed race) who have 
drifted into the towns. But those who have come . 



252 FOLLOWING THE SUNRISE 

into contact with Visayans of the provinces have a 
far more encouraging story to tell. Mr. Briggs speaks 
of the friendship of many Filipinos of all classes as 
a " priceless boon." There are many who tell of the 
sweetness, patience, courage, and devotion of Filipino 
Christians. Furthermore, in judging a people, one 
must always discriminate clearly those qualities that 
are the result of social institutions. The well-nigh 
universal use of drugs, narcotics, and alcohol by men, 
women, and children, for generations, has depressed 
the powers of the race physically, mentally, and mor- 
ally. " The Filipino/' says Mr. Briggs, " is a drugged 
and drunken Malay, falling far short of his highest 
capacities." His church has borne no clear testimony, 
his physicians have universally recommended stimu- 
lants, he has had no glimmer of an idea of the nature 
of these evils which were sapping his very life. One 
of the strongest arguments for pushing mission work 
in the Philippines is that missionary preachers and 
teachers form the only body of radical temperance 
workers in the islands. 

The Land Question in the Philippines. Filipino life 
is cleft in twain by the land question. There are two 
classes, the landed and the landless: the Spanish- 
speaking mestizo, and the tawos or common people. 
Between the two there is a great gulf fixed. The 
friars have consistently despised the native, and taught 
the mestizo to be proud of his Spanish birth. The 
feudal land system has established a landowning aris- 
tocracy composed of the mestizo, or Spanish-speaking 
portion of the population, and the friars. The back- 



BUTTRESSING DEMOCRACY 253 

bone of Filipino social life is feudalism. A failure to 
understand this makes it impossible rightly to inter- 
pret conditions or movements. Primitive Malay so- 
ciety had been composed of three classes, the datos, 
or chiefs, big and little, the tawos, or common people, 
and the slaves. It was an easy thing to build upon 
this social organization a feudal state and a feudal 
church. The abuses of the friars as landlords were 
the chief reasons for the revolt of the Filipinos against 
Spain. The friars had come to hold a large portion 
of the best land in the islands, on which they paid no 
taxes, and from which they derived very large rev- 
enues. 

The Man at the Bottom. Each little barrio, or 
country village, is governed by a head man, who is 
responsible to the presidente of the pueblo, or town. 
No one expects to be independent. Each pays tribute 
to the chief above him for protection in the good old 
feudal way. The condition of the peasant at the bot- 
tom is one of peonage, and sometimes virtual slavery. 
He is never out of debt to the owner of the hacienda 
for the bare necessities of life. He passes from gen- 
eration to generation as part of the property of the 
estate. The helplessness, improvidence, and lack of 
ambition which centuries of such conditions have cre- 
ated will not be removed in a day. The Filipino is 
drugged not only with narcotics, but with feudalism. 

Coming of the Missionaries. The city of Manila 
was still in the throes of insurrection when the first 
American missionary services were held by the Meth- 
odists and Presbyterians. Early in 1900 came the 



254 FOLLOWING THE SUNRISE 

Baptists, the United Brethren, the Disciples, and the 
Congregationalists. It was soon seen that some or- 
ganized plan of dividing up the territory must be 
made. Accordingly an Evangelical Union was formed 
in 1901, and it was agreed that the Methodists and 
Presbyterians should be assigned territory in Luzon, while 
the Baptists and Presbyterians were to divide the terri- 
tory in Panay and Negros. It was further agreed that 
the name Protestant should not be used, but that the 
churches should be known as Evangelical churches, and 
that members moving from one location to another should 
be accepted by letter, irrespective of denomination. 

Filipino Response. There never was such a re- 
sponse to the preaching of the gospel as the Filipinos 
gave during the next ten years. It was a new thing 
for them to have liberty to say anything or to read 
any book contrary to the will of the friars. At first 
they could not understand that the protection of the 
American flag meant the right to free thought, free 
speech, and a free Bible in a free state. Men had been 
put to death for owning a Bible in the Philippines. 
There had been, however, an unconscious preparation 
for freedom. Senor Zamora, imprisoned and exiled 
for reading the Bible, returned from Europe after the 
coming of the Americans to find his son Nicholas also 
secretly believing, and these two formed the nucleus 
of the first Methodist Episcopal Church in Manila. 
One whole village church went over in 1901, assem- 
bling on their knees with tears to partake of the first 
communion in which they were allowed to take the 
wine as well as the bread. 



BUTTRESSING DEMOCRACY 255 

Baptist Pioneers. It was at first supposed that 
Spanish would be the language of instruction in the 
Philippines, and the American Baptist Foreign Mission 
Society hastened to lay hands on Rev. Eric Lund, who 
had for years been faithfully shepherding a little Baptist 
church in Spain. When Mr. Lund replied to the letter 
from the Board asking him to take up work among 
the Visayan islanders, he was able to tell them that 
he had with him in Spain a converted Visayan, a for- 
mer student for the priesthood, with whose help he 
had already prepared a Visayan translation of a por- 
tion of the New Testament and some Spanish tracts. 
When Mr. Lund and Mr. Manikan began their work 
in Jaro they found that the Spanish-speaking people 
were a very small proportion of the inhabitants. 
These, moreover, were bitterly prejudiced and inac- 
cessible. They realized that if the Filipinos were to 
be evangelized it was to be through the despised ver- 
nacular languages. With Manikan as helper, Mr. 
Lund set himself to the study of the Visayan language 
and to the completion of the Visayan Gospel already begun 
while in Spain. 

Vernacular Translations of the New Testament. 
During the first ten years of American occupation the 
Filipino dialects received their first respectful atten- 
tion. An immense amount of study was given to 
them and the ideas regarding the possibilities of the 
dialects modified. The educated Filipinos had been 
ashamed of their own languages. There was no litera- 
ture in any of them, and there had, of course, never 
been a translation of the Bible into any of these 

R 



256 FOLLOWING THE SUNRISE 

dialects. The achievement of Mr. Lund is a triumph of 
modern scholarship. In a time that would be deemed 
impossibly brief he was able to present to the Visayans 
the entire New Testament in their own tongue. Be- 
cause of his perfect mastery of Spanish he was able 
to explain to Spanish-speaking Visayan scholars the 
sense of the original, verse by verse. Through com- 
parison of all the best translations and versions with 
the original he was thus enabled to be sure that* the 
translation was both faithful to the original and ex- 
pressed in the idiomatic phrase of the mother tongue 
of the Visayans. He has recently completed the trans- 
lation of the entire Bible into Visayan. 

The Filipino Languages. Other Protestant mis- 
sionaries have translated the Bible into Tagalog, and 
Ilocano, and the New Testament into minor Filipino 
dialects. They have thus performed a great service, 
not only for religion and social progress, but also for 
the cementing of national unity and the dawn of na- 
tional self-respect. So long had the Spanish friars 
taught the Filipinos to scorn their own language that 
the educated people were ashamed to attend a meeting 
conducted in the vernacular. It was at first thought 
that these variant forms of the Malay tongue were too 
meager, too rude, too primitive to permit of a worthy 
translation of the Bible. " As a matter of fact," says 
one who has for ten years used the vernacular con- 
stantly, " their dialects are all very beautiful. The 
vocabulary is large and expressive, and the grammati- 
cal structure is very wonderful and ingenious. The 
Bible loses nothing by translation into the oriental 



BUTTRESSING DEMOCRACY 257 

imagery of the Filipino dialects. The gospel that was 
first clothed with the robe of parable and figure is at 
home in the warmly imaginative speech that reflects 
the luxuriant verdure of the tropics." * 

Emergence of a Unified Language. For the present 
the Bible must be translated into all the dialects, but 
may it not be possible that ultimately some one of 
these may become the dominant language? We know 
that there were many dialects of early English, Ger- 
man, and Italian, which gave place in time to one 
form of speech. When it is considered that the Vi- 
sayans number one-half the islanders, and that many 
of the tribes number at best but a few thousands, it 
is not at all impossible that the Visayan dialect may 
ultimately assume this place. The translation and 
circulation of the Bible will be very powerful factors 
in the outcome. The tribe which peruses the most 
newspapers, and fosters the circulation of the Bible and 
the spread of education will probably be the one whose 
speech survives. Inasmuch as the Tagalogs and Vi- 
sayans are found intermingled on the Visayan Islands, 
it may be that the final form of language will be a 
combination of these two dialects. 

Printing of the Baptist Version. Most of the ver- 
nacular translations were printed jointly for the mis- 
sions by the Bible societies, but the Baptists gave 
themselves the pleasure of paying for their own 
splendid Visayan version, all for the sake of the privi- 
lege of translating the word baptizo by the word 

* u The Progressing Philippines," p. 143. 



258 FOLLOWING THE SUNRISE 

" immerse." It would be one of the strange turns of his- 
tory if that one word were enough to prevent the wide- 
spread use of this great version, and therefore the ulti- 
mate triumph of the Visayan dialect. One thing is 
sure, that that Filipino version of the Bible which gets 
itself most widely read during the next hundred years, 
the most deeply loved and best committed to memory, 
is the version that will do for the Filipino mother 
tongue what Luther's Bible did for the German, 
Wyclif 's for the English, and Dante's " Divina Corn- 
media " for the Italian. 

Work of Padre Juan. Baptist work began with a 
great spiritual uprising of the Visayan peasants in 
the island of Panay. Forty or fifty years before, a 
wandering friar preacher had gone throughout the 
country district to instruct the people of the barrios 
in the holy faith. He was like one of the little brown 
brothers of St. Francis of Assisi in the hill-towns of 
Italy in the thirteenth century. Poor, simple, hum- 
ble, and loving, he threaded his way from barrio to 
barrio. He had one story to tell, the love of Christ; 
one book to read, the gospel. The poor people, who, 
like most of the barrio dwellers, had been utterly 
neglected by the friars, gathered about the friendly 
brother and drank in this wonderful new story that he 
told. Sometimes he warned them dimly of trouble 
that might come to him, and prophesied that if he 
should be imprisoned for teaching them, men would 
come some day from across the sea bearing a book 
and speaking of the love of God. News of what Friar 
John was doing in this far-away island reached Manila. 



BUTTRESSING DEMOCRACY 259 

He was recalled and thrown into prison. Some said 
that he was killed. The peasants were sternly warned 
against his heresies and strictly bidden to forget them ; 
but this only drove his teachings deep down from their 
stupid brains into their patient hearts. 

Awakening of the Peasants. Now Jaro (pronounced 
haro) is a great market-place. From all over the 
province of Iloilo come the barrio folk to trade. Thou- 
sands of them walk into market every week with their 
produce on their shoulders. The market is to them 
newspaper, club, social relaxation, as well as trading- 
place. When Mr. Briggs and Mr. Lund first began 
to preach in the market-place there were groups of 
peasants shyly watching. They saw the book in their 
outstretched hands, they heard, in their own tongue, 
of the love of God. The next w r eek they brought 
others from the barrios. The news spread : " Padre Juan's 
prophecy has come true, the men with the books are 
come." All through the barrio country the word was 
carried, and multitudes gathered to hear the missionaries. 

Presenting of the Petition. One day, after the mis- 
sionaries had been speaking in the market-place for 
about nine months a deputation of these taivos brought 
them a document signed by thirteen thousand names. 
The undersigned, so the document read, were already 
Protestants, and wished to be evangelized, taught, 
and protected as Protestants. In the word " pro- 
tected " their Malay instinct and experience spoke 
true. All the life they had ever known had needed 
the protection of powerful superiors if it were to be 
safe. The vengeance of the friars they well understood. 



260 FOLLOWING THE SUNRISE 

Inadequacy of the Response. Is it not a tragedy 
that this great door and effectual thus opened by God 
could not have been enthusiastically entered? There 
was no question here of proselyting from the Roman 
Catholic Church. These peasants had received little 
shepherding for three hundred years. They were so 
meagerly instructed in the essentials of Christianity 
that they hardly knew what they were. They came 
asking for preachers and teachers. The great Baptist 
denomination hardly stirred in its sleep. To be sure 
it sent out a few faithful men and women, who have 
done a wonderful work. But the giant strength of 
the denomination was not in any measure bent to this 
new task. Had the Baptists been ready to respond 
aggressively to this appeal with sufficient funds and 
adequate force there seems little doubt that the barrio 
people en masse would have moved into evangelical 
faith. Money was wanting, and zeal; and while the 
churches were busy here and there, time was given 
for a counter-movement to arise, and some doors were 
closed. Still the patient people wait, in great spiritual 
destitution. Glorious results, however, have followed 
the sparse sowing of the field which the small and 
ofttimes depleted force of missionaries has been able 
to give during the decade just past. A church of four 
thousand, three hundred and thirty-seven members 
has been gathered, one for every day of the time spent 
on the islands. The barrio people have built and paid 
for their own chapels, have done much personal work, 
have stood firm, and have kept the faith under trying 
persecution. 



BUTTRESSING DEMOCRACY 



261 



Growth of Baptist Churches. The statistics of the 
growth of Baptist churches in the Philippines, as ex- 
hibited in the accompanying chart, are full of encour- 
agement to larger endeavor. The churches have in- 
creased since 1911 from thirty-four to fifty-seven, a 
gain of sixty-seven per cent. Churches entirely self- 
supporting number seventeen in 1913, as against eight 



Number of 
Communicants 



Number of 
Churches 



Number of 
wholly self- 
supporting 
Churches 



Number of 

Sunday-school 

Members 



Number of 
Sunday-schools 



Increase : 

67 per cent 



112. 5 percent 



29 per cent 



25 per cent 



164 per cent 



Two Years' Growth of Baptist Churches in the Philippines, 



262 FOLLOWING THE SUNRISE 

in 1911, a gain of one hundred and twelve and five- 
tenths per cent. Communicants have increased 
twenty-nine per cent, almost ten per cent a year, grow- 
ing from three thousand, three hundred and fifty- 
eight to four thousand three hundred and thirty-seven. 
In 1911 there were forty-four Sunday-schools, now 
there are fifty-five. At that ra,te they would double 
every four years. The gain in Sunday-school mem- 
bership is most encouraging of all. In 1911 the forty- 
four schools averaged twenty-three pupils each, an 
aggregate of one thousand and fourteen. In 1913 the 
fifty-five schools averaged not quite forty-eight pupils 
each, an aggregate of two thousand, six hundred and 
eighty, or an increase of one hundred and sixty-four per 
cent. A field so fruitful that it responds with such 
harvests to the sparse sowing given it through ten years 
ought to receive more enthusiastic attention. 

The Student Dormitory, or Hostel. One form of 
work which has proved very valuable was first intro- 
duced by the Baptists, but is now being employed by 
other denominations also. In Bacolod, Mr. Forshee 
conceived the idea of a Christian dormitory for pupils 
attending the public high school of the province, 
which brought together into Bacolod the brightest 
boys and girls of the surrounding country. A dormi- 
tory for boys and one for girls have been established, 
and during this last year land has been bought adjoin- 
ing the high-school compound, where it is proposed 
to erect larger and more suitable buildings to replace 
the small native buildings now utilized for the boys'" 
dormitory. 




BOYS OF JARO INDUSTRIAL SCHOOL AT WORK 




A VILLAGE CONGREGATION IN THE PHILIPPINES 



BUTTRESSING DEMOCRACY 263 

Influence of the Dormitory. Says Doctor Lerrigo, 
in speaking of the boys' dormitory at Iloilo : 

Many of the dormitory boys are on the high school 
athletic team and these ties give us a strong hold on the 
young people, which we are strengthening daily. I feel 
that the dormitory is a most important part of our work 
and that it should be enlarged and every advantage taken 
of the influence it gives us with the students and their 
families. The prospects for the coming year are ex- 
cellent. A large number of boys have expressed their 
desire to enter the dormitory, and the teachers in charge 
of the athletics are hoping to place the whole athletic 
team with us, recognizing the great advantages which 
accrue to the boys from the wholesome moral surround- 
ings of the mission dormitory. 

Industrial School at Jaro. Among the strong fea- 
tures of Baptist educational work is the industrial 
school at Jaro. One of the fundamental weaknesses 
of Filipino society is its scorn of manual labor. As in 
any feudal society, the laborer is looked down upon as 
a serf, and the last thing that any educated man wants 
to do is to engage in skilled labor. One of the benefits 
of the American occupation of the islands is the im- 
parting of a new view-point in regard to the dignity 
of labor. The Jaro Industrial School was founded with 
the idea of turning out not merely students, but manly 
men. On a farm of sixty-five acres, some two miles 
out of Iloilo, two large buildings have been erected 
for classrooms, dormitories, and trades buildings. The 
equipment has often been so meager that plain living 
and high thinking have been perhaps too much in 



264 FOLLOWING THE SUNRISE 

evidence, yet the very plainness and simplicity of the 
school has given it the life and tang that Tuskegee 
and Hampton have had in America. 

Nature of Industrial Work. There are five hun- 
dred boys, ranging from eight to eighteen years of age, 
who are gathered into the Jaro Industrial School from 
the near-by provinces. Tuition and board are free, but 
each boy has to work for what he gets. Here is no 
dilettante manual training for the sake of learning 
how a thing might be done. Things are done, and 
done so well that they have commercial value. Furni- 
ture is made, and so beautifully polished that it has a 
reputation and sells. Sugar-cane is cultivated, and 
rice. An irrigation system has been introduced that 
secures superior quality in both rice and cane. Live- 
stock is raised, and buildings are repaired and erected. 
The school is a miniature republic too, organized some- 
what on the lines of the Junior Republics in Amer- 
ica, with much discipline in self-government and manli- 
ness, and incidentally, a fine experience prepara- 
tory for the duties of citizenship. There are daily 
Bible classes that lead not to talking about religion, 
but to the conducting of village Sunday-schools, and 
to vacation evangelistic trips on the part of the older 
boys. Forty-eight of the boys were baptized last 
year. They are now planning how the student body 
may be instrumental in evangelizing the towns from 
which they come. The " gang instinct " is to be har- 
nessed up for the service of the Kingdom. Already 
one revival has been reported as the result of work 
done in vacation by some of the Jaro schoolboys. 



BUTTRESSING DEMOCRACY 265 

Appreciation of the School. It is expected that in 
time the school will be self-supporting, except for the 
salaries of the American missionaries. Even now the 
larger number of the teachers are Filipinos. The car- 
penter shop already pays a profit. Mr. William T. 
Ellis, writing in the Philadelphia " Press," says that 
it is the best school in the islands. The secretary of 
the Young Men's Christian Association affirms that it 
is the best missionary idea in the Philippines. A dis- 
trict superintendent of schools said that it embodied 
the very idea for which he had been looking ever since 
he came to the country. 

Needs of the School. It seems a pity, does it not, 
that with such a school to be proud of, one million, 
five hundred thousand American Baptists have not yet 
been able to afford a grinding-mill for sugar-cane? 
To be sure it would cost five hundred dollars, and the 
budget must not get too big. But the request sounds 
reasonable, or would if it were a mere business enter- 
prise ! A recent report states : 

Our sugar-cane is a very fine quality, weighing some 
thirteen ounces more to the cane than it did last year, all 
on account of irrigation. Where we lose is in sending 
this cane to a mill across the river. The price of grind- 
ing it is at least one-third the value of the sugar, and we 
must add to this the cost of transporting to the mill. . . If 
we had a small mill costing about $500 all this would be 
saved. 

The supplying of this minor need by some good 
sisters with a practical turn of mind ought not to 
interfere in the least with plans for meeting the needs 



266 FOLLOWING THE SUNRISE 

of this significant school for adequate equipment. Lit- 
erally hundreds of students are turned away each year 
for lack of buildings and land. One hundred thousand 
dollars invested here would bless the islands through 
centuries to come. The returns on such an invest- 
ment cannot be exceeded anywhere in the mission field 
to-day. 

Girls' Schools in the Philippines. There are some 
notable developments in Baptist educational work for 
girls in the Philippines. The Filipino woman is, with- 
out doubt, the most influential and the freest woman 
of the Orient. She can be made one of the most power- 
ful evangelizing agencies, as she is now the strong- 
hold of conservatism and ignorance. One of the Bap- 
tist missionaries writes that he is rejoicing because 
forty-two per cent of recent converts have been wo- 
men, and this means a gain in the number of fam- 
ilies reached. There can be no permanent work with- 
out reaching the families, and much of the labor ex- 
pended upon the education of boys and men is wasted 
unless corresponding emphasis is given to the enlight- 
enment of the girls and women. 

Bible-Woman's Training School at Jaro. The Bible- 
woman's Training School in Jaro is doing a work of 
incalculable good in the training of Bible-women, who 
go out to the barrios scattered over three islands to do 
direct evangelistic work. The term of instruction is 
for six months each year, the other half-year being 
spent in practical work on the field. The full course 
covers four years. The first class of fully trained 
workers was graduated in 1911. These women are 



BUTTRESSING DEMOCRACY 267 

trained not only in the Bible and Christian funda- 
mentals, but in home nursing, first aid to the injured, 
Sunday-school work, and the first principles of do- 
mestic science. One of these trained women, a widow 
of forty-five (a great-grandmother, by the way), has 
a Bible class of sixty men in a church of five hundred 
members. Other women are carrying on day-schools, 
kindergartens, Sunday-schools, preaching services, and 
colportage work in the sale of Christian literature. 
" The school/' says Miss Johnson, " would increase 
by the hundreds if there were buildings and teachers 
to care for the students." Every year she has had to 
refuse admission to large numbers. 

School for Upper Class Girls. In the same place the 
Woman's Society has opened a boarding-school for 
the mestizo girls of the upper classes. The school was 
organized by Miss Bissinger in 1910 with these aims : 
" First, direct religious instruction, aiming to develop 
a womanhood of serving Christians, saturated through 
and through with the atmosphere of the kingdom of 
God. Second, a full public school course from first 
grade to the high school, aiming to make our students 
dominant factors in a land peculiarly fitted to be influ- 
enced by its women." 

Pupils in the School. Miss Bissinger says that she 
finds the girls peculiarly teachable and incomparably 
lovable. In the very first class were the daughters of 
the governor of the island. The school was at once 
antagonized by a Romanist bishop, himself an Ameri- 
can, and the people forbidden to come to the opening 
reception — but they came. 



268 FOLLOWING THE SUNRISE 

Needs of the School. The greatest need at present 
is a suitable building. Land has been bought, but the 
school is housed in a rented building. In Miss Bis- 
singer's appeal for the building she says that this, the 
only Christian school for girls of the upper classes in 
the Philippines, ought to have a suitable building. She 
has very definite ideas, and very good ones, of the type 
of building that is needed. It ought to be of concrete 
in order to withstand the onslaught of the terrible 
storms to which the Philippine Islands are subject. 
It ought to be beautiful, even ornate, in order to evi- 
dence to the people the dignity and the quality of the 
work. If they find the buildings of the Catholic 
schools large and massive, and the Protestant school 
housed in a small and unattractive temporary shelter, 
the people reason, not unnaturally, that the enterprise 
itself must be of little moment. 

Home School at Capiz. At Capiz the Woman's 
Society has maintained a unique institution, the Home 
School. Little waifs and the children of the very poor, 
between the ages of four and seven, are taken to the 
home to be sheltered and educated until old enough to 
go to work, or to be placed in other schools. " Ah," 
says the suspicious reader, " an orphan asylum. I 
thought they were thoroughly out of date." It may 
look a little like an orphan asylum on the surface, but 
there the likeness ends. If all the waifs and orphans 
in the United States of America could have a Miss 
Suman in such an asylum there would be no problem 
of the delinquent child, for the school really is a home, 
bubbling with laughter, blossoming with motherly. 



BUTTRESSING DEMOCRACY 269 

kisses and cuddlings, strong with wise discipline. The 
results are little short of miraculous. 

Brownies at Work. u These degenerate Filipinos 
won't work/' say the critics. You should see Miss 
Suman's Brownies ! She takes them, diseased, emaci- 
ated, filthy in speech and body, cleans them up, clothes 
them, and sets them — no, not sets them, but loves 
them, into work. " Of course they don't like to work," 
she bristles like a small, motherly hen, whose chickens 
are menaced, " when all the work they ever knew 
about was done for others' profit, with little but kicks 
and curses coming their way." It's a heart-warming 
sight to see those Brownies at work, each child, even 
the tiniest tot of three, with its task. They prepare 
the vegetables, help get the meals, make the gardens, 
keep the house clean, make all their clothes, and wash 
and iron them. They are as busy as bees, and happy 
as birds. A squad of four and six-year-olds has a 
leader aged ten, who is responsible for his men. Be- 
fore any one even heard of the Montessori system, 
Miss Suman was putting into practice the very prin- 
ciples of self-activity and development through re- 
sponsibility that are supposed to be so very scientific 
and modern. When a cyclone blew away her roof, 
twelve-year-old boys, tied to the rafters lest they blow 
away, worked like soldiers to repair the breach. In- 
itiative, daring, steadiness, and mental alertness are 
all to be seen hanging thick as precious fruit on her 
educational tree. 

Religious Atmosphere of the School. All her chil- 
dren become Christians. A recent report said that 



2;o FOLLOWING THE SUNRISE 

there were not very many baptisms to report because 
all the children old enough to understand had already 
joined the church. Some of these little children make 
great missionaries too. Miss Suman told of one little 
blind beggar, so wretched that, to practical people, he 
would hardly seem worth saving, who fearlessly found 
his way to a head-hunting tribe in the mountains that 
the government had been unable to pacify, explained 
to them the purpose of the government, and brought 
them to consent to let their children come down to school. 

Need of New Buildings. Two terrible hurricanes 
that have wrecked the buildings and inflicted great 
suffering on teachers and pupils have proved the need 
for strong cement buildings, with iron roofs, such as 
the government finds are needed to resist the tropical 
storms to which the Philippines are so subject. Who 
is going to have the privilege of building this house? 
It costs twenty dollars a year to support a child in this 
school. Are there not a hundred Baptist Sunday- 
schools that will each take a scholarship at twenty 
dollars, and so provide for the whole? An extra five 
dollars added to each scholarship would provide for 
enlargement and betterment, and would not be out of 
place. 

Medical Missions. Medical missions form one of the 
great needs of the Philippines. The misery, dirt, and 
disease of the people are appalling. The Christian 
physician can do much, both as an evangelist, and in 
removing the present evil conditions which make 
wholesome life impossible for multitudes. The birth- 
rate in the Philippines is large, forty-seven and nine- 



BUTTRESSING DEMOCRACY 271 

hundredths per thousand; but the infantile death-rate 
is nearly twice as great as that in the United States. 
The old religious training of the islands had little of 
social service in it. The emphasis of the friars had 
been on " spiritualities, not temporalities." Hence the 
islands had been left to become one of the plague 
centers of the world. Tuberculosis is everywhere, the 
hookworm with its consequent tropical anemia is so 
prevalent that it is said that eighty per cent of the 
prisoners in Manila jail were found to be infected. 
Malaria and tropical dysentery are endemic. Surely 
the very physical suffering and ignorance of the peo- 
ple constitute an overwhelming appeal to the Chris- 
tian physicians of the United States, where there is 
one physician to every five hundred of the popula- 
tion. Some of them could be spared. The mis- 
sionary hospitals have done magnificent service in 
interpreting true Christianity as a religion that came 
not merely to get people to heaven, but to heal the 
broken-hearted, to make the deaf hear, the lame walk, 
the blind see, and to set at liberty them that are 
bruised. The Baptist physicians, Doctor Lerrigo, Doc- 
tor Thomas, and Doctor Steinmetz have found homes 
open to them that were fast closed to all the other 
missionaries. They testify that there is an appalling 
need of medical care. There are towns which, with 
their surrounding barrio districts, number fifty thou- 
sand inhabitants, utterly without medical aid of any 
sort. The Filipino doctors are not numerous, are for 
the most part in the cities, and few of them have any 
humane ideals which require them to go to the service 
s 



2J2 FOLLOWING THE SUNRISE 

of the poor tawo. The gratitude of these peasants 
when they see an educated physician willing to min- 
ister to them in their suffering in the humblest tasks 
is beautiful to see. " Jesus walks again on earth/' they 
say. 

Union Hospital. Interdenominational cooperation 
in hospital building and maintenance is already accom- 
plished in the Union Hospital at Iloilo,the joint respon- 
sibility of Presbyterians and Baptists. Doctor Lerrigo 
reports that the current expenses of the hospital and 
dispensary at Capiz are all met by medical fees. One 
gains some insight into the self-sacrifice and devotion 
of the medical missionary, on learning that Doctor 
Lerrigo, in addition to treating eight thousand, eighty- 
five out-patients, two thousand, one hundred and sixty- 
five in-patients, and making six hundred and seventy- 
two visits to patients in their homes, supervised a 
large evangelistic field and had oversight of the boys' 
dormitory. 

Training School for Nurses. One of the most useful 
functions of the medical work is the training of nurses. 
The first class of nurses graduated in the Philippines 
was trained in the Union Hospital at Iloilo. The 
Filipino woman makes a good nurse, and every nurse 
is an apostle of better times to come. The earnest 
Christian students from Miss Johnson's Bible Training 
School who come to the hospital for training make 
ideal nurses. Their opportunity for Christian service 
is very great, as they have access into the most bigoted 
homes, at a time when they are peculiarly open to 
spiritual influences. In one of his reports Doctor Ler- 




ON THE VERANDA OF THE UNION HOSPITAL AT ILOILO 




A GIRLS BIBLE CLASS IN THE PHILIPPINES 



BUTTRESSING DEMOCRACY 273 

rigo speaks with the greatest admiration of the work 
of Miss Rose Nicolet, the head nurse of Emmanuel 
Hospital in Capiz. 

The building with all its virtues was wanting in bath- 
rooms . and those little closets and storerooms dear to 
the hearts of all women. . . Those useful acces- 
sories of modern nursing made their appearance, bath- 
rooms with home-made cement tubs, closets here and 
there with shelves and compartments for linens and 
supplies, . . curious devices of many kinds, owing them- 
selves to her wisdom and ingenuity. Little bedside tables 
have been introduced, screens of superior pattern and 
graceful frames to support mosquito-nettings. . . A 
young Filipino who had been in America and traveled 
widely in the Philippines recently gave this testimony: 
" I have been in several hospitals both here and in Amer- 
ica and my stay here has pleased me better than any pre- 
vious experience." 

Bible School at Iloilo. In accordance with the policy 
of concentration and intensive development recently 
adopted by the Board, the Bible School at Iloilo for 
the training of native pastors and evangelists is to be 
given up for the present. Brief courses in Bible study 
are to be offered by the missionaries in the different 
stations. In the near future it is hoped that the mis- 
sion may unite with the Presbyterians in establishing 
one central Bible Training School, where, with a larger 
number of students, and with greater efficiency and 
less expense the workers for both denominations can 
be trained. 

The Mission Press at Iloilo. The Baptist Mission 
Press at Iloilo, Mr. F. L. Snyder, superintendent, is a 



274 FOLLOWING THE SUNRISE 

powerful factor in the work. Here is printed the little 
monthly called " The Pearl of the Orient/' that circu- 
lates not only in the field, but goes to supporters in 
the homeland. Commercial work of good grade is 
done which helps to carry the financial burden of the 
press. Testaments, tracts, and a monthly magazine 
in Visayan, also Sunday-school helps and quarterlies, 
and school outlines for the missionaries, are among 
the lines of work which keep the busy presses going. 

Need of an Aggressive Policy. What of the future ? 
To the Baptists and Presbyterians has been committed 
the work on the Visayan islands. By vote of the 
Mission and the Board of Managers the Baptists de- 
cided not to enter the island of Samar, but to confine 
their work to Panay and Negros. On these two islands 
live about a million people, for whom Baptists are 
solely responsible. It is plain that only a beginning 
has been made in discharging this responsibility. 
What could eight ministers, four physicians, one 
printer, nine school-teachers, and one nurse do to meet 
the spiritual needs of a million people ? This force of 
twenty-six missionaries, moreover, can rarely muster 
more than half its strength on the field, owing to the 
necessity of furloughs and the heavy drain made upon 
health and strength by the climate. 

Comparison with Methodist Work. The wasteful- 
ness of such scant provision of men and funds is ap- 
parent when we consider the story of the Methodist 
missions in the Philippines. The Methodists, with a 
force of forty-five missionaries, a large corps of native 
helpers, and adequate financial backing, have gained a 



BUTTRESSING DEMOCRACY 275 

membership of thirty-three thousand. They have 
eleven thousand pupils in the Sunday-schools. The 
self-supporting Filipino churches contributed more 
than ten thousand dollars the last year, and the mis- 
sion received in contributions from friends and sup- 
porters in the Philippines double that amount in addi- 
tion. They had no better native material to work 
upon than had the Baptists, nor had they better mis- 
sionaries. They were better supported by larger plans 
and more adequate financial contributions. Says the 
Baptist missionary, Mr. C. W. Briggs, " The achieve- 
ments of this great mission (Methodist) in twelve 
years of work are a challenge to the Church in America 
to occupy every unoccupied field." 

The Unreached Field. None of the missions is 
meeting the need. The Methodists are responsible 
for two million Filipinos; the Presbyterians for three 
and a half millions. When one contrasts what Ameri- 
can churches have done for the spiritual regeneration 
of the Philippines with what the American Govern- 
ment has done in education and social betterment, the 
showing is not one in which Christians can take pride. 

Government Services in Education. When the five 
hundred and forty-two American school-teachers were 
landed in Manila from the transport " Thomas/' 
August 23, 1901, there began the most striking experi- 
ment in popular education which the world has ever 
seen. There are in the Philippines about one thousand 
American teachers, and eight times as many Filipino 
teachers, with six hundred and ten thousand pupils. 
There are thirty-five provincial high schools, and the 



276 FOLLOWING THE SUNRISE 

foundations of the government university of the Phil- 
ippines are already laid. Religious liberty and free 
education were both the gifts of the flag. So successful 
has the public school system proved that already a 
surprisingly large percentage of the Filipinos are 
literate. 

Government Work in Sanitation. The government 
found Manila one of the most unhealthful cities in 
the world, and has made it one of the most healthful 
cities in the tropics. Government medical men have 
deprived smallpox of its terrors by the vaccination of 
millions of Filipinos. The cause of beriberi has been 
discovered, and the way to avoid it shown. The num- 
ber of lepers is rapidly decreasing, since the govern- 
ment has made provision for their segregation. A 
campaign for fighting tuberculosis has been inaugu- 
rated, and the plague has been controlled. 

Industrial Betterment. The government bought the 
friar lands — great estates of the richest lands which 
were held away from the people — and resold these 
lands to settlers in severalty. It has already received 
sixty million dollars in payment, thirty per cent of 
the price paid. The government guarantees land titles. 
Harbors have been deepened, very perfect government 
roads built and railways on three islands. River chan- 
nels have been cleared, and a post-office system was es- 
tablished with a postal savings bank four years before 
people had it in the United States. One hundred and 
forty-two lighthouses have been built to safeguard the 
treacherous channels, and Filipinos have been trained 
to be the lighthouse keepers. A revenue system has 



BUTTRESSING DEMOCRACY 277 

been perfected that enables the island treasury to 
report a balance every year. All this has been done at 
the cost of a bonded indebtedness of only twelve million 
dollars, involving a per capita debt of one dollar and 
fifty cents, and a per capita interest charge of six cents. 
All the annual budget of fourteen million dollars is 
provided for by the resources. With the exception of 
the three hundred millions paid out by the United 
States Government in the beginning for army and navy 
expenses, no money raised in America is used for the 
running of the Philippine Government. It is Filipino 
taxes which provide for the schools, roads, post-offices, 
lighthouses, hospitals, and all other government un- 
dertakings. A better article of government is provided 
and more for less money than any other colonial power 
has ever given to one of its colonies. There is no great 
army of American office-holders ; just as fast as Filipinos 
can be trained for positions these are filled by Filipinos. 
The chief justice of the Supreme Court is a Filipino. 
There are Filipino assemblymen and postmasters, jus- 
tices of the peace and policemen, lawyers, civil officers, 
and teachers. With the American occupancy of the 
Philippines a new type of colony came into being, the 
nearest approach to the Good Samaritan in politics that 
the world has ever seen. 

Opportunity of American Christians. These achieve- 
ments of our government cause every American heart 
to thrill with pride. But what is needed to make all 
this magnificent work permanently valid? The crea- 
tion of a new type of character. The one power which 
can do this is the pure gospel of Christ. The time is 



278 FOLLOWING THE SUNRISE 

short, in the few generations that must elapse before 
the Philippine Islands are given over to the Filipinos 
for complete self-government, it is for the American 
church to do a work which the government is helpless 
to accomplish. The apathy, selfishness, and narrow- 
ness of vision of the Christian church may stamp with 
failure the most lively experiment in national altru- 
ism that the world now holds. The Church must 
not fail " Old Glory." She must not fail her Divine 
Leader, whose heavenly Kingdom waits its consum- 
mation because of her sloth and faithlessness. 

Facts About the Philippines 

The most recent foreign mission field. 

The most fruitful foreign mission field. 

Protestant Christians in 1900, none. 

Protestant Christians in 1910, 76,000. 

There are 55,000 Chinese in the Philippines, who control 90 
per cent of retail trade. 

There are 167 Protestant missionaries in the islands. 

The English language is more widely diffused in ten years than 
Spanish was in three hundred years. 

Cost to United States of America of insurrectionary period, 
$300,000,000. 

Baptists responsible for evangelization of 1,000,000 Filipinos. 
Baptist investment in 1912, $55,72571- 

Theological students of the Presbyterian, Methodist, and Dis- 
ciples are taught in union theological classes. 



BUTTRESSING DEMOCRACY 279 

Baptist Educational Institutions in the Philippines 

Industrial School, Jaro. Rev. W. O. Valentine, principal; Rev. 
F. H. Rose, Miss A. B. Honger, Miss E. Grace Williams, 
Miss Mary J. Thomas, American members of faculty. 

Enrolment, 349 pupils. Instruction in scientific agriculture, 
carpentry, cotton-ginning, etc. All the 500 boys in this im- 
portant school are taught some industry. The students are a 
self-governing body, organized into the Jaro Industrial School 
Republic. A new building is greatly needed. 

Woman's Bible Training School. Miss Anna V. Johnson, 
principal. 

Only school for the training of Bible-women in the Visayan 
islands group. 

Academy for Girls, Iloilo. Miss Caroline M. Bissinger, princi- 
pal; Miss Alice M. Stanard. 
Only school in the Philippines for girls of the higher classes. 



Bibliography 

Blount, The American Occupation of the Philippines. New 
York, Putnams. 

Census of the Philippine Islands, 4 Vols. Vol. I, Population, 
geography, history. Vol. II, Population. Vol. Ill, Mortality, 
defective classes, education, families. Vol. IV, Agriculture, 
social and industrial statistics. 

A valuable source book for official information on varied 
features of the islands and the people. Washington Government 
Printing Office, 1905. 

Briggs, The Progressing Philippines. Philadelphia, American 
Baptist Publication Society, 1913. 
A recent book, attractive and informing, especially upon pres- 
ent conditions. 



280 FOLLOWING THE SUNRISE 

Brown, A New Era in the Philippines. New York, Revell, 1903. 

Missions in the Philippines. Boston, American Baptist Foreign 
Mission Society, 1906. 

Jaro Industrial School. Boston, American Baptist Foreign Mis- 
sion Society. 

The Kindergarten a Factor in Missionary Work. Boston, 
American Baptist Foreign Mission, Society. 

World Missionary Conference Report. Chapter I, pp. 121-124. 



LIMITATIONS OF PRESENT STUDY 

In swift review we have watched the movement of 
Baptist missions in the Orient through a century. It 
was hoped to include in the present volume a study of 
Baptist missions in Europe, but it was found imprac- 
ticable, even to tell in brief the story of missionary 
effort in Spain, Italy, France, Germany, Russia, and 
Scandinavia. It would be an inspiring study to trace 
the reflex influence of American Baptists on the coun- 
tries from which emigrants come, but that is a story 
which would need an entire volume. 

As we look back over a century filled with the mercy 
of God, over weak enterprises which he has strength- 
ened, feeble beginnings which he has brought to glori- 
ous outcome, the whole denomination must receive a 
fresh baptism of power. If so much has been done 
through the partial consecration, the fitful endeavor, 
what might he not do through a church alive to her 
high calling. Three needs stand forth. 

The Need of Money. One of the tragedies of life is 
the wasting of money— such wealth and such need 
drifting helplessly by each other like ships becalmed. 
The giant power of the Church is poured out on trifles ; 
while for her great task she reserves only her mites. 
It would be quite possible, out of the selfish indul- 
gences of Christians, to finance every missionary enter- 

281 



282 FOLLOWING THE SUNRISE 

prise tenfold. The kingdom might come bravely 
marching over the mountains to-morrow, if the full 
tithe were poured into the treasury of the Church. Rev. 
O. P. Gifford once said that money was the true polyglot 
answering each man in his own tongue. Christians 
could make it speak first of the kingdom, if they would. 

The Need of Sacrifice. In the face of the unbeliev- 
able opportunities of the present there is demanded a 
new measure of adventurous faith — some such pas- 
sion of sacrifice as made men and women brave and 
fearless in the war of the rebellion. What is needed 
is not a calculating sending out of small parties of 
scouts, but a massing of the whole army for advance. 
Each church must have its investment of life; each 
family its offering of the first-born. It is the King's 
business that we do. 

The Need of Prayer. The water of life in the hills of 
God can be brought to the desert by free channels of 
prayer. A break in the higher conduits means drought 
in the fields below. To change the figure, the plants 
of the Spirit cannot grow in a prayerless atmosphere. 
A revival of intercessory prayer could double the effect- 
iveness of the missionary force without the addition 
of a new man or a better building. Let the church- 
member at home realize his missionary calling to 
prayer to be as compelling and as arduous as that of 
the foreign missionary to work. Let both recognize 
that there is only one Christian calling, though many 
occupations; that the power of God is behind and 



LIMITATIONS OF PRESENT STUDY 283 

underneath every man who adventures himself upon it. 
Let the devotional exercises that decorate, but do not en- 
liven missionary meetings, be replaced by real prayer for 
actual needs of concrete mission fields. Let Christians 
enter into the secret place of power through intercessory 
prayer, and a new sunrise of beatitude will glorify the 
whole church of God. 



SUPPLEMENTARY REFERENCES 

General 

Patterson, Geography of India. London, Christian Literature 

Society for India, 1909. 
Statesman's Year Book. London, Macmillan Company, 1913. 
World Missionary Conference, 1910, Reports. Nine volumes, 
New York, Revell, 1910. 
Invaluable for knowledge of the real situation in lands treated 
by this book. 

World Atlas of Christian Missions. New York, Student Volun- 
teer Movement, 191 1. 
Contains a directory of missionary societies, a classified sum- 
mary of statistics, an index of mission stations, and maps show- 
ing the location of mission stations throughout the world. 

Periodical Literature 

Missionary Review of the World. New York, Funk & Wagnalls 
Company. 

International Review of Missions. New York, Missionary Edu- 
cation Movement. 

The Moslem World. London, Christian Literature Society for 
India. 

English Periodicals in our Missions. See Handbook of Ameri- 
can Baptist Foreign Mission Society, p. 72. 

Baptist Work 

Newman, A Century of Baptist Achievement. Philadelphia, 
American Baptist Publication Society, 1901. 

Merriam, History of American Baptist Missions. Revised Edi- 
tion with Centennial Supplement, Philadelphia, American 
Baptist Publication Society, 1913. 

284 



SUPPLEMENTARY REFERENCES 285 

Gammell, History of American Baptist Missions. Boston, 1854. 
Serviceable for certain facts, especially statistics of the early 
period. 

Annual Reports of: 

Northern Baptist Convention. 

American Baptist Foreign Mission Society. 

Woman's Baptist Foreign Missionary Society. 

Woman's Baptist Foreign Missionary Society of the West. 

The Handbook of the American Baptist Foreign Mission Society. 
Boston, 1913. 
A story of the year in the words of the missionaries; illustra- 
tions of the work; complete list of fields and stations; brief 
description of every mission station; complete directory of mis- 
sionaries; accurate, colored maps. An indispensable help in this 
study. 

Our Work in the Orient. Boston, 1910-1913. 

An account of the progress of the Woman's Baptist Foreign 
Missionary Society. 

Missions. A Baptist monthly magazine. Boston. 

A current record of Baptist progress at home and abroad; 
having special articles on many phases of the work treated in 
this book; profusely illustrated with many photographs taken 
on the field. An essential sidelight on the topics treated. 

For special phases, see publications of American Baptist 
Foreign Mission Society, Woman's Baptist Foreign Missionary 
Society, and Woman's Baptist Foreign Missionary Society 
of the West, and Department of Missionary Education, 23 East 
Twenty-sixth Street, New York. 

Several of the books and items referred to in the bibliographi- 
cal notes can be secured from the Department of Missionary 
Education, 23 East Twenty-sixth Street, New York. 

There are many more valuable helps illustrative of separate 
chapters concerning which information can be had, or which 
can be consulted, at the New England Baptist Library, 708 Ford 
Building, Boston, Mass. 



INDEX 



Abbott, Elisha, 42-44. 

Abors, 72. 

Africa: redemption of, 217; loss of 
life in, 218; heroism of mission- 
aries in, 219; conquering the cli- 
mate of, 220; possibilities of, 221; 
importance of, 222; salaries pi 
teachers in, 240; opportunities in, 

241. 

Africans: gifted, 221; pioneer mis- 
sionaries, 223; generous Chris- 
tians, 229. 

Agricultural Missions: at Kurnool, 
123; in India, 130; at Jaro, 263. 

Ahlone, 56. 

American Baptist Foreign Mission 
Society, 28, 209, 224, 235, 239, 
255. 

American Baptist Missionary Union, 
28, 99, 149, 182. 

American Board of Commissioners 
for Foreign Missions, 25, 26, 181. 

American Revolution, 3, 16. 

Amherst, station at, 35. 

Animism, 226, 227. 241. 

Annexation of Philippines, 247. 

Armstrong, Rev. W. F., D. D., 56, 
57. 

Ashmore, Rev. William, D. D., 151. 

Ashmore Theological Seminary, 165. 

Assam, 65-94. 

Assamese converts, 74-76. 

Aungbinle, 31, 36. 

Ava, 31, 37. 



B 

Babies' Doctor, The, 129. 

Bacolod, 262. 

Banza Manteke, 226, 235. 

Bapatla Cooperative Association, 121. 

Bapatla Normal School, 130. 

Baptists, American: preparation of, 

11; growth of, 16; organized for 

missions, 28. 



Baptist Missionary Work Compared, 

157-161, 209, 274. 
Baptist Educational Ideals, 160. 
Baptists, English, 4, 9, 10, 24, 25, 

97. 132, 225, 235. 
Baptist Principles, 11-14. 
Bassein, 42, 43. 
Bawden, Rev. S. D., 120. 
Bengal-Orissa Mission, 131-133. 
Bengalis, in Assam, 68. 
Bennett, Rev. Cephas, 51. 
Benninghoff, Rev. H. B., 205. 
Bhamo, 53. 
Bible, translation of, 9, 36, 70, 98, 

145, 147, 155, 182, 183, 226, 227, 

.255-258. 
Bible-women, work of, 154. 196, 266. 
Bickel, Capt. Luke W., 198-^04. 
Bissinger, Miss C. M., 267. 
Bixby, Moses H., 55. 
Bixby, Josephine, Hospital, 167. 
Boardman, George Dana, 35, 39-41, 

148. 
Boardman, Sarah, 41. 
Bolles, Rev. Lucius, 27. 
Brahmaputra River, 67. 
Briggs, Rev. C. W., 248, 252. 
British and Foreign Bible Society, 

10. 
British East India Company, 7, 17, 

28. 
Bronson, Miles, 72, 73, 77, 88. 
Brown, Nathan, 68, 70, 183, 184. 
Buddhists, 19, 30, 54, 56, 58, 195, 

202. 
Burmese Bible, 36. 
Burma, 19, 30-59. 



Calcutta, 69. 

Campbell, Sir Archibald, 35. 

Canadian Baptist Mission, in. 

Capiz, Home School at, 268, 269. 

Carpenter Rev. H. C, 43. 

Carey, William, 4-10. 

Caste, 108, 120, 124-126. 



287 



288 



INDEX 



Chengtu, 156, 163. 

China, 18, 68, 141-173. 

Chinese Christians, 158, 159, 164, 

166, 168, 169. 
Chinese in Burma, 56. 
Christian Endeavor, 122. 
Clark, Rev. E. W., D. D., 70. 
Clark, Rev. Joseph, 230. 
Clough, Rev. John E., D. D., 107- 

112. 
Colman, Rev. James, 132. 
Conquest of Burma, 46. 
Congo Free State, 224, 225. 
Conscience, freedom of, 12. 
N Cooperative Missionary Work, 163, 

193, 194, 2T2. 

Corner in India, A, 84. 

Cotton, Rev. John, his controversy 

with Roger Williams, 13. 
Curtis, Sarah, school in Tokyo, 185. 
Cutter, O. B., 68. 
Cradle roll, 129. 



Evangelism in Missions, 166, 185- 
188, 195, 197-204, 228-231, 264. 



Famine: in Burma, 48; in India, 
112-114. 

Feudalism in the Philippines, 252. 

Field, Miss Adele, Originator of 
training Bible-women, 154. 

Filipinos: characteristics of, 250; 
drunkenness of, 252; responsive- 
ness of, 254; languages of, 256. 

Forestry taught at Donakonda, 122. 

Free Baptists, 131, 132. 

Frederickson, Mrs. P., 231. 

Friar lands, 276. 

" Fukuin Maru," 197-204. 

Fuller, Andrew, 4, 5. 



D 



Dairying and Gardening Taught, 122. 
Day, Rev. Samuel F., 98-100, 133. 
Dean, Rev. William, 148. 
Dearing, Rev. J. L., D. D., 206. 
Deccan, 97, 115. 

Degenring, Miss Anna, M. D., 129. 
Deputation of 1853, 102. 
Dessa, Miss Amelia E., 122. 
Dithridge, Miss Harriet, 188, 191. 
Donakonda, forestry at, 122. 
Dormitory for business men, 206. 
Downie, Rev. David, D. D., in. 
Dry farming in India, 120. 
Duncan Academy, 193. 



Edwards, Jonathan, 3. 

Edinburgh Conference of Missions, 

208, 229. 
Education an evangelizing agency, 

80, 87, in, 158, 187-189, 192, 239. 
Educational Missions: in Burma, 50, 

51; in Assam, 79-82; in India, 

130, 131, 134; in China, 158-164; 

in Japan, 186-194, 205; in Africa, 

235-238; in the Philippines, 262- 

270. 
Efficiency, Edinburgh standard of, 

208, 209. 
Eubank, Rev. M. D., M. D v 168. 
Eurasians: in Burma, 58; m India, 

101. 



Garos, 68, 76, 78-86. 

Gauhati, 68, 75. 

Gifts of Telugu Christians, 116. 

Girls, education of, 82, 86, 87, in, 

129, 186-191, 266-269. 
Goalpara, 76. 

Goble, Rev. Jonathan, 181. 
Goddard, Rev. J. R., D. D., 155. 
Green, Byram, 24. 

H 

Hakkas, Missions among the, 153- 

167. 
Hall, Gordon, 25, 26. 
Hangchow, 155. 
Hanyang, 167. 

Hanumakonda, 115, 118, 126. 
Haystack prayer-meeting, 23. 
Head-hunters, 68. 
Himeji, 188. 
Hinduism, 67, 108, 125. 
Hirata San, conversion of, 201. 
Hollister, Rev. W. H., 131. 
Hopia Tree, grave under, 36. 
Hospitals, 126-128, 155, 162, 167, 

242, 272. 
Hough, Rev. George, 34, 51. 
Huchow, 155, 167. 
Hyderabad, Nizam of, 97. 



Ikoko, 230, 235. 

Industrial Missions, 71, 84, 119-124, 
23 8 > ^^3i 264, 



INDIA 






Ingalls, Mrs. Maria B., 57. 
Ingathering of Telugus, 113, 114. 
Inland Sea, work on, 197. 
lshihara San, 190. 
Isle of France, 29. 



Lone Star Mission, 99, 103. 

Loomis, Harvey, ^4. 

Lotteries, 18. 

Lukunga, 235. 

Lund, Rev. Eric, D. D., 255-258. 



J 

Jaipur, printing-press at, 72. 

Japan:- transformation of, 178; in- 
fluence of Christianity in, 179; in- 
troduction of Christianity in, 181; 
Inland Sea of, 197; country popu- 
lation of, 197; University dormi- 
tories of, 205; extent of unreached 
territory in, 207. 

Japanese Christians, 186-188, 195, 
202. 

Jaro, 259-263. 

Jewett, Rev. Lyman, D. D., 100-107. 

Jones, Rev. John Taylor, 147, 148. 

Jorhat, school at, 84. 

Judson, Adoniram, 17, 25, 26-36, 99, 
100. 

Judson, Ann Hasseltine, 30-36, 147. 

Julia of Nellore, 101, 104, 105. 



K 

Kachins, 52-54. 

Kanagawa, 188. 

Kandura, 74. 

Karens: 38-53; language of, 37, 4 2 > 

traditions of, 38; elevation of, 38; 

training of, 42. 
Kemendine, 47, 50. 
Kengtung, 55. 
Kidder, Miss Anna H., 184. 
Kimpesi Training School, 235-238. 
Kincaid, Eugenio, 46. 
Kindergartens, 188-191. 
Kinhwa, 155. 
Kityang, 156. 
Ko Tha Byu, 39, 40, 50. 
Kurnool, 123, 130. 
Kvvantung, Missions begun in, 150. 



Lerrigo, Rev. P. H. J., M. D., 263. 

Lesher, C. B., M. D., 168. 

Levi, Nidi, 74. 

Liberality of Native Christians, 116, 

n8 : 122, 157, 196, 229. 
Liuchiu Islands, 194. 
Livingstone Inland Mission, 224. 
London Missionary Society, 10, 97, 

98. 



M 

Mabie, Dr. Catharine L., 236, 236. 

MacGowan, D. J., M. D., 155. 

Mackay, Alexander, 219. 

Madigas, 109. 

Malas, 109. 

Madras, 29, 97, 98. 

Mandalay, 41, 59. 

Manila Bay, battle of, 248. 

Manu, Code of, 108. 

Marshman, Hannah, 8. 

Mass Movements, 125. 

Maymyo, 59. 

McDiarmid, Rev. P. A., 235. 

Medical Missions, 72 y 126-130, 155, 

161, 167, 179, 241, 242, 270-273. 
Methodism, 3, 18. 
Methodist Missions, 1 58-161, 254, 

274. 
Mikirs, 67. 
Mills, Samuel J., 23. 
Missionary Organizations, 10. 
Moral Conditions of Eighteenth 

Century, 18. 
Morioka, 190. 
Morning Star, The, 132, 
Morrison, Robert, 144. 
Morton Lane School, 50. 
Moulmein, 44, 46, 59. 



N 

Nagas, 67. 

Nana, church at, 196. 

Nalgonda, 115. 

Nellore, 98, 100, 129. 

Newell, Samuel, 25, 26. 

Nicolet, Miss Rose, 273. 

Ningpo, 155. 

Northern Baptist Convention, 131, 

157. 
Nott, Samuel, 25, 26. 
Nowgong, 74, 87. 
Noyes, Rev. Eli, 133. 
Nyaunglebin, 51. 



Omed, conversion of, 77, 78. 
Ongole, no, in, 114, 122, 125, 130. 
Opium traffic, 145. 



290 



INDEX 



Orphanages, 113. 

Osaka Bible School, 196. 

Outcastes, 108-110, 124. 



Padre Juan, 258. 

Palabala, 235. 

Palmur, 115. 

Papacy, 17. 

Pariahs, 108. 

Paul, the apostle of the Congo, 231. 

Peabody, Miss Lavinia, in. 

Perry, Commodore, expedition of, 
178, 194- 

Philippine Islands: acquisition of, 
248; size of, 248; climate of, 249; 
people of, 249, 250; racial unity 
and divisions of, 250, 251; land 
question in, 252; peonage in, 253; 
response to gospel in^ 254; gov- 
ernment achievements in, 275-277. 

Phillips, E. G., M. D., 80. 

Phillips, Rev. Jeremiah, 133. 

Phinney, F. D., 51. 

Physicians, women, 128, 129, 161. 

Pirates, attack of, 148. 

Poverty in India, 113-115. 

Prayer, concert^ of, 3, 180. 

Presbyterian Missions, 160, 254, 275. 

Primitive Peoples of Burma, 52-55. 

Printing-press: in Burma, 51; in 
Assam, 72; in the Philippines, 273. 



Q 

Queen's Bible, 57. 



R 



Rajasimla, 78. 

Ramapatnam, in, 112, 129. 

Ramkhe, 77, 

Rangoon, 29, 30, 47, 57. 

Rangoon Baptist College, 50. 

Reed, Henry, steamboat, 224. 

Retrenchment, 106. 

Revival: in Assam, 90; in India, 
113; in Africa, 226; in the Philip- 
pines^ 259. 

Revolution in China, 142-144. 

Rice, Luther, 25-28. 

Richards, Rev. Henry, 226-229. 

Richards, James, 24. 

Robbins, Francis L., 24. 

Roberts, Rev. Issacher, 149, 153. 

Roberts, Rev. W. H., D. D., 53. 

Rungiah, John, 118. 



Sadiya, 69, 7i*73- 

Saint Francis of Assisi, 23. 

Sandoway, 49. 

Santals, 134. 

Scott, Anna K., M. D., 167, 168. 

Secunderabad, 114. 

Self-support, 43, 44, 50, 114, 117. 

Sendai, 187. 

Serampore Mission, 7, 8, 25, 29. 

Shanghai College and Seminary, 164. 

Shans, 54, 55, 69. 

Shuck, Rev. J. L., 149. 

Shwegyin, 51. 

Siam, 37, 54, 146. 

Sibsagor, 73. 

Social Service in Missions, 205, 206, 

Sooriapett, 115. 

Southern Baptist Convention, 28, 

149, 150, 164, 168, 182, 224. 
Stait, Mrs. F. W., M. D., 128. 
Stoddard, Rev. I. J., 75, 78. 
Student Hostels, 205, 262. 
Suifu, 156. 

Suman, Miss Margaret, 268. 
Sunrise Prayer-meeting, 104. 
Sutton, Amos, 97, 132. 
Swatow, 167. 
Szechuan, Mission in, 155. 



Tai Ping Rebellion, 151, 152. 

Tamil and Telugu emigrants, 56. 

Tavoy, center of Karen work, 39. 

Telugu Baptist Missionary Society, 
118. 

Telugu land, 97. 

Telugu Mission, 97f. 

Theological Seminaries, in, 163-165, 
202, 237. 

Thomas, Jacob, 73- 

Thomas, John, M. D., 7. 

Thomson, Rev. R. A., 195. 

Thomson, Mrs. R. A., 189. 

Ting Li Mei, 160. 

Tokyo: home school in, 185; board- 
ing-school and kindergarten in, 
186-192; Duncan Academy in, 193; 
theological ^ seminary in, 194; 
tabernacle in, 204. 

Tong Tsing En, 164. 

Topping, Mrs. Genevieve, 190. 

Toungoo, 54. 

Training School: in China, 162; in 
Tokyo, 190; in Osaka., 196; in. 
Kimpesi, 235; in Jaro, 266; in 
Iloilo, 272. 

Triennial Convention, 28, 30. 



INDEX 



29] 



Tsukiji Kindergarten, 189. 
Tura, 80-82. 
Tshumbiri, 236, 239. 

U 

Uchida San, first Japanese Woman 
Christian, 184. 

Udayagiri, 129. 

Union in Missionary Work, 163, 193, 
j 72. • 

United States of America, popula- 
tion of, in 1813, 17. 



Vedder, Henry C, his estimate of 

Carey, 8. 
Verbeck, Guido, influence of, in 

Japan, 178. 
Vinton, Justus, 44-49. 
Visayans, 252, 256, 257. 

W 

Wade, Jonathan, 34, 39-42,. 148. 
Wallis, Widow, meeting in parlor 
of, 7. 



Waseda University, 205. 
Watanabe, Mrs., 189. 
Weavers' caste, 120. 
Webb, Miss Mary, 10. 
Wellwood, Rev. Robert, 168. 
Welsh Mission, in Assam, 92. 
White, F. J., President Shanghai 

College, 164. 
Williams College, 23. 
Williams, Roger, 12-15. 
Williams, S. Wells, 179. 
Williams, Rev. William R., 100. 
Woman, degradation of^ 81. 
Woman's Missionary Societies, 10, 

56, 161, 162, 165, 184, 189. 
Women: heroism of, 76, 89, 117, 

184, 196, 217; disabilities of, 127. 



Yokohama Theological Seminary, 202. 
Yu, Miss Dora, 166, 167. 



Zenrin Kindergarten, 189. 



DEC 2 1913 



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